By Allison Perrine
FAIR HAVEN – The borough is offering suggestions to alleviate noise levels and safety concerns stemming from its brush storage and grinding site at
the corner of Hendrickson Place and William Street.
The site has been largely used for brush grinding since the 1980s, but in more recent years it has become disruptive and bothersome to some neighbors and other residents. With that in mind, the town put out a community survey to see how participants feel about its brush services and made recommendations from there, announced at the April 12 council meeting.
“I hope the neighborhood bears with us. We’ll see how things go and then if further adjustments are needed, we will reconvene the brush committee to take it further,” said Mayor Ben Lucarelli during the meeting.
As part of the grinding process, 18-wheeler trucks bring brush collected from the borough to the facility and then load it into an industrial grinder. Grinding occurs twice a year in the spring and fall for two weeks at a time. The site is also used as a work area for the borough and a place to store debris from roadwork.
For some time, the borough has taken in a large amount of Rumson’s brush but has cut back in recent years due to neighbors’ complaints. One resident who lives adjacent to the site, Jennifer Spitz, told The Two River Times that the grinder rumbles so loudly, it rattles the picture frames on her walls at home. She has been vocal to the town about her family’s troubles with the brush grinding for over six years, and even started an online petition to close the site in September 2020.
The borough put out a brush service survey that same month, asking for responses by the end of October 2020. Two main findings from the 729 total responses showed that many residents in town appreciate the process of collecting and removing brush around town, but that there is also a dislike for the traffic and safety issues, as well as the noise levels. At the same time, a majority of individuals said they would be against changing the process if it meant increasing taxes or reducing the frequency of brush collection.
The town took a hard look at the survey findings, especially members of the brush committee, which includes council representatives Christopher Rodriguez and Elizabeth Koch; residents Michael Cannon, Jon Peters, Jackie Rice, James Newell, Allison Morrison, Gich Gardell; and borough administrator Theresa Casagrande. Together, they examined an array of possibilities, such as eliminating brush pickup in town altogether, closing the facility, relocating it and more. But there are “a lot of inhibitors to a lot of” those options, said Rodriguez, council president.
“I think in the long run if laws change or otherwise, we might be able to relocate the facility,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that’s a recommendation in the near term but in the long run, I do think if we’re able to get that done that would probably be best to get that facility moved closer to Ridge Road. We’ve learned that that’s not in the cards for us right now due to local state-level approvals that would be needed.”
In the meantime, he said the committee suggests that the borough continue offering brush pickup and grinding at its current location. Additionally, the committee suggests that the borough terminate its interlocal agreement with Rumson for brush pickup and processing. Rumson has already been notified, according to Rodriguez.
“A lot of considerations were taken into account around that recommendation but ultimately the committee was unanimous on that and I believe the council was also unanimous on that,” he said.
While the agreement was financially beneficial for Fair Haven and helped offset costs for the borough’s brush collection, terminating it will reduce the amount of grinding by about 65 or 70 percent – along with the disruptions and noises presented by the grinding process. He said the committee looked at sending its brush out to another town locally but that it would prolong the collection process and would not reduce the town’s cost for equipment and maintenance.
Additionally, the committee hopes to improve communication about brush schedules throughout the town. One idea is to put stickers on garbage cans notifying residents of when each zone is permitted to put out its brush and to spread that information to landscaping crews. Anyone who repeatedly does not comply could receive fines, Rodriguez said, as part of the committee’s final suggestion.
Councilman Michael McCue said he liked the idea of the stickers on garbage cans and said that during his time on the environmental committee, members hoped to do something similar to inform residents of the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of recycling.
“We love to recycle, but sometimes we perhaps maybe recycle too much,” he said, suggesting that some items are improperly put in recycling cans. “I think seeing it right there just as a reminder would be great.”
Councilwoman Laline Neff questioned why the committee feels it would be impractical to shut down the site and outsource brush grinding.
“I think it’s something to be considered; it’s a burden to people living in that community,” Neff said. “It is at least my perspective that it is not healthy to have this operation near so many homes. I know it’s been there forever but there are a lot more homes today than there were 60 years ago.”
Rodriguez responded by explaining that it currently takes about a week to clean up the town’s brush in each zone. Outsourcing the service would take two or three times longer, he said. “So, it wasn’t as much of a time issue as it was impractical. And if we then decided to outsource it all together, then we’ve got a whole bunch of staff and equipment which was also another impractical approach. So, given the current equipment and leases and human resources that we have, it wasn’t really a practical issue.”
Koch, who participated in the brush committee meetings, said at first she didn’t know what to expect when the committee was established. “I wasn’t really sure how we were going to achieve the desired results. But we had a great group of residents on the committee. We were all very much aligned with our objectives and our goals,” she said. “We created the survey which we really appreciated the residents taking the time and effort to fill it out. It gave us a lot of valuable information.”
The committee’s work is not done. The plan is to wait six months to a year to reflect on how operations have been without the interlocal agreement with Rumson. If adjustments need to be made, the committee will reconvene and search for new options for improvement.
The article originally appeared in the April 22 – 28, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
