Trash Law Relaxed in Point Beach, Despite Plan to "Step Up" Enforcement

Point Beach residents and businesses are getting yellow postcards in the mail telling them to put out their trash and recyclables in trash cans with lids or their disposables will not be disposed of.

Is that the way it's really going to work?

Well, not always.

So all trash and recycling will get picked up even if it's all in bags without cans, even if there are cans without lids, even if there are no addresses painted on cans as required by local ordinance?

Well, not always.

Actually, there is a new set of verbal, marching orders to come out of Borough Council, after a two-hour, heated discussion about trash at Tuesday night's long, contentious meeting.

And those directives don't completely match up with what folks will be reading on the yellow postcards.

New rules: The first time a home or business does not comply with the ordinance, the local public works crew should not pick up the trash, which will hopefully make the violators realize they must have done something wrong, said Councilwoman Kristine Tooker, who was trying to give direction to Borough Administrator Christine Riehl after the long debate.

The second time that same home or business fails to comply, they get a warning, but their trash gets picked up, Tooker said.

"By then, they really need to take the trash away because by that time, it will be getting smelly," she explained.

The third time they get a summons from the Beach's code enforcement office.

So that's how it's going to work throughout the entire town?

Well, not always.

That doesn't apply to Ocean Avenue because owners and tenants of houses up and down Ocean and its narrow cross streets put cans and bags all over Ocean and it's hard to tell where the trash came from, said Tooker, echoing a sentiment expressed by many during the long discussion.

It's a neighborhood where some permanent homeowners live next to seasonal tenants with absentee landlords, with clearly mixed results.

Police Chief Kevin O'Hara said during the meeting that a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling prohibits police or any other public employees from rifling through trash to determine who left it out.

In order to get permission to do that, police would have to apply to the court for a search warrant, just as they would have to in order to search any other private property.

A judge would grant a warrant only if police could show there is a probable cause to suspect a more serious crime, meaning something beyond an ordinance violation, O'Hara said.

So police officers are not in a position to investigate trash to figure out which resident or tenant on or near Ocean Avenue may have left out garbage in a way that does not comply with the existing ordinance.

So the town has an ordinance on the books that, apparently, cannot always be completely enforced, and a set of new, verbal marching orders for residents, businesses and public works that is partially inconsistent with that ordinance.

John Morrongiello, an Atlantic Avenue resident, pointed out to council that the directives on the yellow card they are mailing to homes and businesses does not match what they were calling for on Tuesday night.

"If you're going to pick up garbage" even if it's not in cans with lids and house numbers painted on them, "you can't say you aren't going to pick it up," Morrongiello said, reading the card, looking up at council and then looking back at the card.

No, the verbal directives Tuesday night are not entirely consistent with the message on the yellow cards or the ordinance that serves as the premise for that message.

But there was no consensus to draft any amendment to the ordinance.

The discussion began when Mayor Vincent Barrella opened up Pandora's trash can by saying that perhaps council should cut the part of the ordinance requiring that all trash and recyclables be put out in cans with lids because the town's directors in charge of public works, code enforcement and police are saying they simply cannot enforce it.

Councilman Sean Hennessy said he was surprised to hear that because he remembers being at committee meetings with Public Works Director John Trout and Chief Code Enforcement Officer Elaine Petrillo who, at the time, backed the ordinance and helped write it.

"They were the ones who molded this ordinance," Hennessy said. "They gave us a lot of input."

"I was told by the same people that enforcement is a problem," Barrella said.

Hennessy said the ordinance should stay on the books and be enforced.

"That's what code enforcement is for," he said.

Barrella said he wishes the yellow cards listed the names of the council members so residents know who should hear their complaints when trash is not picked up.

"But you don't want anyone to know this is your idea because it's a lousy idea," Barrella told council, waving the yellow card.

"Mayor, you have twisted this," Hennessy countered. "Do you know how many people bought cans and how many businesses hired private contractors to pick up their trash because they couldn't comply with the ordinance? And now, because a couple of people aren't complying, you want to change it?"

Barrella and some of the residents said there are actually many in town not complying, especially summer renters on and near Ocean Avenue.

Hennessy added later, "I thought it was peculiar that public works started leaving trash behind on Memorial Day weekend."

Hennessy said the requirement for cans tightly covered with lids is to help keep seagulls and other animals from tearing into trash bags and leaving remains all over the streets.

His father, former mayor Daniel Hennessy, beseeched the mayor and council to keep the ordinance in place.

"You'll look like fools if you get rid of this now," he said. "Give a few tickets out on Ocean Avenue. That's all it takes. Deputize me. I'll sit out there."

Barrella asked the former mayor, "If it's a good idea, then why don't the council members put their names on this?" He again held up the yellow card.

"I'll put my name on it," said Daniel Hennessy, holding out his hand, as if to take the card.

Trout said on Thursday morning that he did not wish to comment on what was said at prior committee meetings.

"We're on the service end and we'll do whatever the mayor and council thinks is best for the town," he said.

He said public works is now following the verbal directives put forth Tuesday night and that code enforcement will issue warnings and summonses as warranted.

Trout said that the reason Ocean Avenue looked pretty good by Wednesday evening is because his crews had swept through during the day on Wednesday and picked up all trash left out by that morning, regardless of whether it had been left out in bags without cans, as per council's verbal directives from Tuesday night.

Trout also noted that trash on Ocean Avenue gets picked up daily from the third week in May through the third week in September, according to a local regulation that was established many years ago.

The side streets between Ocean Avenue and the beachfront get picked up three days a week and the rest of the borough gets picked up two days a week, Trout said.

Meanwhile, the ordinance debated Tuesday night has been in effect since it was passed unanimously by all six council members last October.

Consequently, lots of trash put out in bags was not picked up during the long, hot Memorial Day weekend and homeowners in the Ocean Avenue neighborhood let the mayor and council know they were steamed.

"When I turned onto Ocean Avenue, I wanted to be sick," said Mary Jane Reilly, who lives on Beachcomber Lane, one of the narrow streets that runs perpendicular to Ocean Avenue on one side and the boardwalk on the other.

"It looked like New York City during a trash strike," she said.

Peter O'Rourke, echoing the sentiments of a number of other residents, said he believes the six council members who had voted for the ordinance had nothing but good intentions.

"The idea is great, but it's failed," said O'Rourke, who lives on Hayes Court, another side street between Ocean Avenue and the beach.

Outside the meeting, O'Rourke said that four of the 20 houses on Hayes are "renters with absentee landlords, which causes a tremendous problem. And Minard Row is complete party city. A house on Minard roasted a pig and threw the carcass over the fence onto the beach."

O'Rourke, like many other residents, said absentee landlords aren't around to make sure that trash is placed out for collection in the proper way at the proper time.

Councilman Jeff Dyer said the town should have code enforcement work at least one day during the weekends, as they did years ago.

"They need to pick up the garbage now and then we'll have more enforcement," he said. "And we'll revisit this at future meetings."