Before Pesach, trash goes poof

As Pesach preparations came to completion, Five Towns homeowners had one less worry: what to do with the last remnants of chametz garbage generated in the last push of cleaning up before chametz prohibitions set in.

Sanitary District 1, covering all of the Five Towns, was out in force providing special pickups throughout the area. For the second year, the bright green garbage trucks drove along the streets starting from 7 am, collecting any bagged garbage left at the curb. This service was to end at 1 pm but continued till 4:30 pm. Calls to Sanitary District 1 for special pick-ups on erev Pesach were also taken.

Another continuing pre-Pesach service, instituted six years ago at the behest of Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise and then-Lawrence Mayor Jack Levenbrown, were opportunities to drop off garbage at set locations, with garbage trucks parked at the Lawrence and Cedarhurst Long Island Railroad stations from 7 am to 3 pm on erev Pesach. Additional trucks were also placed outside the Young Israel of Woodmere from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and at Temple Hillel in North Woodmere from 7 am to 2 pm.

“People enjoyed the service,” Sanitary District 1 office manager Andrew Reilly told The Jewish Star. He said they gathered 31 truckloads that day, “more than on a regular day.”

“Superintendent George Pappas was very instrumental to make the extra pick ups happen. We always try to help the customers,” Reilly said.

“Every year the district makes the service more helpful and more efficient,” said Avi Fertig, special assistant to Hempstead Senior Councilman Anthony Santino. “They do it because they care.”

Fertig pointed out that the Sanitary District has been instituting other innovative programs. In October it held a shredder day and although 110 people participated, many others said that they had not heard about it and would have come if they had been informed. The district is planning another shredder day, where residents can bring documents to a designated location to be shredded for free. The district rents a shredder truck for a set amount of time so it can only be within those hours.

Fertig said he made the rounds observing the pickups the Monday before Pesach and found the sanitation workers “were working hard but with a smile.”