Town employee Ricky McCoy, left, helps Tony Sasser toss a large light fixture into a container at the town’s recycling center on Talton Avenue. The center’s Saturday hours have been extended. The center now will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. It will be closed from noon to 1 p.m. for lunch each day. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
A truck enters the Mount Olive recycling center on Talton Avenue into a container at the town’s recycling center. There is no fee for town residents to use the facility. The center’s Saturday hours have been extended. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Town employee Ricky McCoy uses a front-end loader to dump a mattress into a container at the town’s recycling center. The center’s Saturday hours have been extended.(Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Saturday hours at Mount Olive’s recycling center on Talton Avenue are changing from half a day to a full day effective Saturday, Oct. 7.
The center will now be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. It will be closed from noon to 1 p.m. for lunch each day.
There is no cost for Mount Olive residents to carry items to the center, located just off North Breazeale Avenue.
Acceptable items include household furnishings, TVs/computers or other electronic items, books, paper, wood, clothes, metal, pasteboard, cardboard and empty paint cans.
The center does not accept oil, flammable liquids or materials, batteries, motor oil, gas engines, bricks, concrete, household garbage or paint.
The town board extended the Saturday hours in response to its decision to begin levying a fee for bulk curbside trash pickup.
The pickup fee, effective as of Sunday, Oct. 1, is for curbside bulk collection of household furnishings, TVs/computers or other electronic items, for curbside pickup by the town — or residents may carry them to the recycling center free of charge.
The fee is based on the size of the load — $25 for small loads, $50 for medium loads and $100 for large loads.
White goods (home appliances such as ovens and refrigerators) are exempt from the fees since the town can sell them to be recycled.
The town does not pick up building/construction materials; tires, dirt; rocks; cement; bricks; batteries; paint or hazardous materials
Residents can avoid the fee by taking bulk items to the town recycling site.
A goal of the fee is to encourage residents to use the Talton Avenue site and thereby reduce unsightly trash piles, town officials have said.
The change in the recycling center hours was announced at the town board’s Monday, Oct. 2, ordinance review session.
Utilities Director Mitchell Davis told board members someone has been hired to run the recycling center, but could not start for two weeks.
However, Davis said he could make arrangements to began the new hours immediately if that was the wish of the board.
Board members said it was.
Davis also wanted to know if the board wanted him to begin charging the pickup fee, or provide a grace period.
The board said no to a grace period.
The fee collection was to have begun July 1, but was delayed to Oct. 1 by the board.
Code Enforcement Officer Justin Hill said some towns allow one free collection once a year. He asked board members if they wanted to do the same.
They did not, saying that someone might hold onto items for just that one occasion.
Residents must call 919-658-9517 to request a bulk pickup and fee assessment.
The charge will be invoiced to be paid within 60 days.
When town crews find bulk piles they will place an orange door hanger at the home with instructions on how to schedule a pickup.
“We have put some (hangers) on the doors of where the pile are,” Davis said. “We have had a few calls and several complaints — they pay their tax money and they want you to pick it up for nothing.”
Residents who pile a bulk load for curbside collection and then fail to take it to the town’s recycling center or to make arrangements to have it collected within seven days of receiving the notification face fines and penalties that can total hundreds of dollars.
Hill said the fees and civil penalties probably need to be voted into the ordinance governing bulk pickup since code enforcement could become involved.
Town Attorney Carroll Turner suggested that the town collect the fee prior to making the pickup instead of assuming the person is going to pay it.
Davis agreed, adding that was the way he had wanted to do it from the start.
Such payments should be made at the water department and not at public works, he added.
“I think you would be way ahead of the game to make them come and pay the money before you pick it up,” Turner said.
Commissioner Delreese Simmons asked Davis who would be charged with trash discarded in an empty field.
The town needs to find out who dumped it, he added.
“You can’t,” Davis said. “You are just going to have to get it up, bite the bullet and chalk it off. You have two options — get it up or let it lay there. It is that simple.
“We are going to fine tune it as we go. I will make it work. I just want that parameters so that we are all on the same page, but I will make it work”
