Discarded TVs and tires being removed from Monongahela’s Chess Park
MONONGAHELA – A garbage hauler returned Wednesday to remove a large number of discarded televisions and tires dumped in a Monongahela park as the result of a misunderstood spring cleanup sponsored by a state lawmaker.
On Tuesday, Big’s Sanitation of North Belle Vernon removed 400 items from Chess Park as the pile grew in size by the minute under state Rep. Bud Cook’s Redd Up the Valley effort.
“It morphed into something that no one foresaw,” Monongahela Councilman Daryl Miller said Wednesday morning as he waited in the park to see who would take the lead on hauling away the mess, which also included paint cans and other refuse.
“It’s very frustrating. It was a good cause, but it just got out of hand,” Miller said.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Volunteers Peter Seth Hoosac, right, and Rafael Rodriguez remove one of the many discarded TVs from Monongahela’s Chess Park.
The office of state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, initially canceled service with Big’s out of a belief that the state Department of Transportation would arrive Wednesday to take the remaining trash away, Miller said.
However, PennDOT had no way of disposing of TVs and tires, items that can be difficult to recycle, department spokesman Jay Ofsanik said Wednesday.
“There is no way we are going to pick up the tires and TVs,” Ofsanik said.
PennDOT did send a crew to assist and remove litter that had been placed in garbage bags at various drop-off sites in the city, he said.
Big’s was rescheduled to arrive at the park at Seventh and West Main streets about 3 p.m. Wednesday to finish the job, company owner Joe Eori said.
“The problem down there is the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing,” Eori said.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
A large number of discarded televisions and tires remained last week in Monongahela’s Chess Park.
The cost of the cleanup effort had yet to be determined. Bartolotta was trying to find a way to pay for the work without using taxpayer money because Monongahela is her hometown, her spokeswoman Katrina Anderson said.
The mountain of tires and TVs arrived at the park, a designated drop-off point, because the cleanup was promoted as a “tool for people to clean out their basements,” said Shannon Reiter, president of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a nonprofit organization in Westmoreland County.
Reiter said it also was advertised as a Great American Cleanup of Pa. event, but it wasn’t registered with the program, which her organization coordinates with PennDOT and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“Residents did what they thought they had permission to do,” she said. “It could happen anywhere. When they register with us, we can snuff it out.”
Cook, R-Daisytown, issued a statement thanking Bartollota, PennDOT, volunteers and others on the local level “who stepped up while we were in Harrisburg working through the immediate problem” of getting the trash away from the war memorial in the park.
“My sincere thanks to these concerned citizens of the city of Monongahela! My staff will continue to reach out to PennDOT, local leadership and others for assistance in this effort and to improve communications moving forward,” Cook stated.