Upholstered furniture items are prohibited from being picked up at Vandergrift.
Parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance banning residents from doing so.
Anyone wanting to know how seriously the city government is taking its ordinance should be prepared to pay fines ranging from $300 minimum to $1,000 maximum for non-compliance. Or in prison she will spend 30 days.
Furniture items such as upholstered sofas, chairs, ottomans, mattresses and box springs were not the only items removed from the district’s waste stream by the ordinance.
Overall, the ordinance allows items or materials that are “not commonly produced in the home”, such as household appliances, industrial waste, dead animals, machinery or machine parts, vehicles or vehicle parts, to be placed in the ward’s garbage collection. It is prohibited to send it to members.
Alderman Christine Wilson, chairman of the Street Sanitation Committee, expressed concern in May that upholstered furniture attracts and harbors pests such as lice and bed bugs. She said those items had to be handled, creating an unhealthy situation for the ward workers who were bitten by bugs.
She had no trouble convincing her fellow councilors to support the ordinance.
Residents wishing to remove prohibited items must arrange with an independent carrier to do so.
The fines for violators can be hefty, but they can be even higher.
The Ordinance stipulates that if the violator fails to comply with the provisions of the Ordinance after the first notice of violation each day, it shall be considered another violation subject to additional penalties.
