FOXBOROUGH, MA — Trash piling up at Foxborough parks and recreational fields has become a growing concern among town officials. But town leaders were at odds over finding a solution to the growing problem.
At last week’s selectmen meeting, Public Works Director Christopher Gallagher said the highway department is normally responsible for emptying 150 barrels on town properties. The barrels are typically emptied twice a week and make up enough trash to fill two 30-yard dumpsters, Gallagher said.
But this routine has been suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic. Town Manager William Keegan said the town has been following state guidelines that recommend a “carry-in, carry out” policy for trash.
“We don’t want to put employees in harm’s way, but we don’t want trash on local fields either,” Keegan said.
But the results of that policy have been mixed.
“I know there are a number of areas around town where trash is just being left which is unacceptable,” Selectmen Chair Mark Elfman said.
Recreation board member Doug Suess said the problem is only getting worse with the end of the school year, warmer weather and the return of the town’s youth basketball program. Recreation Director Deborah Giardino added she expects the problem to worsen more when phase 3 of the Massachusetts reopening plan allows more facilities, like skate parks, to reopen.
One remedy issued should help clean up the Booth Playground and the Payson Road recreation complex. Gallagher said United Material Management, a Foxborough-based trash hauling company, agreed to empty 20 barrels at these two locations.
But officials like Stephanie McGowan acknowledged that resuming collections at 20 of the town’s 150 barrels doesn’t solve the problem — though she said it was a good first step. But Gallagher and other town employees remained adamant that emptying the barrels isn’t safe during the COVID-19 crisis.
“The kind of trash that’s in those receptacles, on a good day is gross, never mind when there is a pandemic,” Gallagher said.
“People throw everything in those barrels,” said David LaLiberte, the head of the tree and park department. “It’s nasty.”
McGowan said she’s reached out to other towns in the area and said all of them still collect trash on public land.
“It sounds to me like you guys just don’t want to pick up the trash anymore,” McGowan said.
But both Gallagher and LaLiberte argued all town employees are simply following established state health guidelines.
By the end of the night, a compromise was made. The selectmen voted to a two-week trial of United Material Management emptying the 20 barrels and keeping the “carry-in, carry out” policy in place for the time being.
