Roselle Park’s governing body introduced an ordinance to establish an ‘a la carte’ bulk pickup service at the August 21st Mayor & Council meeting. Ordinance 2414 will set a fee schedule for 11 eleven items – with two of them – furniture and windows – having separate fees for sub-types. A price breakdown is listed below:
| ITEM | DESCRIPTION | FEE |
|---|---|---|
| Door | (Regular Door) | $10 per item |
| (Storm Door) | $10 per item | |
| Fence | (Plastic Fence) | $10 per 8-foot section |
| (Wood Fence) | $10 per 8-foot section | |
| Furniture | (Couch) | $30 per item |
| (Dresser - Small) | $15 per item | |
| (Dresser - Large) | $30 per item | |
| (Kitchen Chair) | $5 per item | |
| (Kitchen Table) | $20 per item | |
| (Lawn Furniture) | $10 per item | |
| (Love Seat) | $15 per item | |
| (Sleeper Couch) | $40 per item | |
| Mattress | $20 per item | |
| Toys | $10 per item | |
| Window | (Single Window) | $10 per item |
| (Double Window) | $20 per item | |
| (Triple Window) | $30 per item | |
| (Storm Window) | $10 per item | |
| Wood Products | (Must be cut into three-foot pieces and placed into a 32-gallon container.) | $10 per 32-gallon container |
According to the ordinance, items will be picked up by the Roselle Park Department of Public Works (DPW) and is open only to Roselle Park residents. The service will be an on-call basis where residents or property owners will contact DPW at (908) 245-7676 for an appointment. Residents are to notify the DPW of the items and number of each that is requested to be picked up and must pay by cash or check prior to pickup. Once an appointment has been scheduled, the items must be placed at the curb for pick-up.
Although the service is convenient for residents who are either moving out or doing renovations to their property, the fees, for the most part, are greater than if another townwide bulk pick-up were added on in the fall; which would come out to an average increase of around $9 per property (assessed at $65,000).
The list of what is not to be picked up reflects the same items prohibited during a townwide bulk pick-up:
- Appliances (refrigerators, washers, dryers, any metal products etc.)
- Ashes
- Asphalt
- Automobile Parts
- Branches
- Brush
- Carpeting
- Concrete
- Closed-Top Drums
- Dirt
- Electronic Waste
- Household Garbage
- Leaves
- Paint
- Pool Filters
- Railroad Ties
- Rocks
- Stones
- Stumps
- Tree trunks
- Chemicals and materials resulting from demolition, alterations, or repairs to buildings or other structures not generated by the home owner (e.g., materials generated by a contractor) and not generated from pickup sites requiring permits.
No explanation has publicly been provided as to why rugs and carpeting are not accepted in bulk pick-up for Roselle Park. Other surrounding municipalities, including Cranford, Garwood, Kenilworth, Roselle, and Westfield all explicitly permit the collection of rugs and carpeting.
The governing body is scheduled to vote on the ordinance tonight, September 4th, at the Mayor & Council meeting at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall,
Update (09/05/2014):
The ordinance was not on the agenda for September 4th. The next Mayor & Council meeting is Thursday, September 18, 2014.