Monroe County Municipal Waste Management Authority
Committee on Litter Prevention, Control and Cleanup
Minutes of the Regular Meeting
August 23rd, 2012
The regular meeting of the Monroe County Municipal Waste Management
Authority Committee on Litter Prevention, Control and Cleanup was called to
order at 8:30 a.m. by Vice Chairman Joe Battisto on Thursday, the 23rd of
August, 2012 in the conference room of the Monroe County Conservation
District.
Roll Call:
The following Committee members were present: Vice Chairman Joe
Battisto, Ann Pilcher, Edward Elliott, Craig Todd, John Woodling, and
Edward Cramer, Theresa Merli, Don Miller Authority members present were
Jim Lambert Executive Director, Cindy Lieto Board Secretary and Carol
Cummings Recycling Program Specialist. Several Municipal representatives
and residents were present.
Approval/Modification of Agenda
Mr. Joe Battisto made the motion to approve the Agenda
Mr. Ed Cramer seconded the motion. The motion passed by a
unanimous consent.
Approval of the Minutes from the July 26th 2012 meeting
Mr. Ed Elliott made the motion to approve the minutes for the July 26, 2012
meeting. Mr. Ed Cramer seconded the motion. The motion approved by a
unanimous consent.
Public Participation
There was no Public Participation discussion.
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Old Business
 Appointment of Don Miller to the Committee
Jim Lambert stated the Authority has appointed Mr. Don Miller to the
Committee on Litter Prevention, Control and Cleanup. Don is a very worthy
candidate for the Committee. He is a very active citizen in the community
and we are pleased to have him aboard.
Ann Pilcher asked if we could forward an updated Committee list.
 Monthly Activities Report
Carol Cummings reported on the monthly activity report saying she has
had eight graduates since our last meeting. The newest case was from Judge
Muth sentencing a young man to ten hours of community service for
throwing a cigarette out of the car he was a passenger in. This young man
lived 2 hours from Stroudsburg and had to return to fulfill his 10 hours of
community service. Joe Battisto commended the officer for this particular
citation. Theresa Merli suggested a small news article on this case would be
great for people who throw cigarettes out of car windows to see. Jim
Lambert responded he will write a letter to the Police Department
commending the officer about this case and a letter to the editor
commending the Judge and the Police officer as well as a copy to all the
news outlets.
Carol Cummings continued to report this young man has fulfilled his
community service picking up thousands of cigarette butts on Main Street in
Stroudsburg. At the end of his 10hr community service this young man
promised to never litter again.
Carol continued to report unfortunately the last group of offenders refused to
abide by the rules. While picking litter on Stony Hollow Rd. the postman
caught these young men playing with a mailbox in a destructive manner and
being disrespectful to the mailman. The Police were called in and the two
men were kicked out of the program and sent back to the magistrate’s office.
A member stated we have to protect the integrity of the program. Carol
agreed and stated her main goal was to protect the integrity of the program.
Carol handed to the committee a sample letter to the 95 private communities
in Monroe County. The letter offers assistance to the communities along
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with guidelines on how to organize a litter cleanup. The letter states the litter
packet contains a flyer, Safety sheet, along with a roster to keep track of how
much material they picked up. Vests, gloves and bags will be supplied by the
Authority.
Jim Lambert asked Carol how many Judges are participating in the ARD
Program. Carol responded all the judges are participating except Judge
Olsen who was originally excited about this program and asked to work with
Authority at the start up of this program. Carol will contact Judge Olsen this
.Judge Germano thanks to Theresa Merli’s meeting with him; will sentence
the all the Authorities citations to our ARD Program for community service.
Theresa Merli commented she believed Judge Germano thought this
program would end up being a lot of work for his staff. Theresa felt once he
realized the program would not take any staff time other then
communication he will feel more at ease and use the program the most.
Carol reported while she was at District Court Mancuso’s office. She noticed
the parking lot was full of cigarette butts. Carol decided to take her group
and clean the parking lot. The Magistrates office was thrilled and thanked
Carol for the great job and the clean parking lot.
Jim Lambert stated this program is growing. We could use some
recommendations from the committee for the program during the winter
months. We need ideas for indoor projects for the offenders. We have
projects such as cleaning underneath the bins and cleaning our facility. The
program needs and will continue to run through the winter months. Jim
asked the committee to suggest some ideas for the next meeting.
Ed Cramer asked if a Judge gives 50hrs how much time does the offender
have to fulfill their sentence. Carol replied it all depends on the Judge. Carol
will inform the Magistrate how many hours she can pick per day and how
many days she is available per week. All the Judges have been easy to work
with pertaining to time of completion.
 Penn Dot Report on Juvenile Probation
Penn Dot’s Report will be postponed until next months meeting due to
absenteeism.
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 Report of Illegal Dumping Cases
Jim Lambert updated on the cases that were previously reported. As
reported earlier in the year; the case involving the illegal dumping of
household garbage and furniture in Emerald Lakes. The defendant received a
citation and has pleaded not guilty. We are awaiting a court date and will
update the committee on this case at the next meeting.
The case pertaining to Freidman Electric’s dumpster being used by two
people not authorized to throw garbage in and around the dumpster. The
defendants pled guilty and were given 10hrs each of community service by
Judge Anzini.
A resident dumped household garbage along the roadside of the Wagner
Forest community. A citation was issued. The offender did not appear in
court; a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The cases that are currently pending will be updated to the committee
until they are completed.
A Mount Pocono Borough resident complained about a vehicle operator
throwing litter from his window. A witness called the Authorities Police
Department. Sergeant Bagu handled the complaint and cited a citation. The
witness did not want to appear in court. Sergeant Bagu sent a letter to the
offender warning them the fine for littering is up to a $1,000.00.
Chestnuthill Township received a complaint of two garbage dumpsites on
Glenwood Road. The Authorities Police Department investigated. No
evidence was found. The Authority will keep an eye on this site.
Ed Cramer gave Jim Lambert evidence from dump site in Stroud
Townships Municipal Facility. The Authorities Police Department will issue
a citation.
 Update on Deer Program
As of August 22nd the Authority has collected 458 deer carcasses. Rut
season is just around the corner. The good news is our advertising is
working. The public now knows who to call for deer pickup. Joe Battisto
stated he has received great feed back on the Authorities efficiency in
handling the calls to the prompt pickup of the deer carcass. When Paul is not
handling deer pickup he is doing other things for the Authority. If the deer
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truck is in for repair we have other trucks to take over the deer collection.
We have all of our avenues covered.
Jim Lambert reported all the paperwork for the Deer Program is now
completed. The County is no longer a party to the agreement with Penn Dot
and the Game Commission; the Authority is. The Authority is no longer
contracted by the County. Jim spoke with Bob Mudrick (Penn Dot) on
working on a 5year agreement. The Deer Program has had many positive
remarks and is working out very well. The Authority makes a point of
completing every deer pick up with in 24hrs. We are expecting to collect
over a thousand deer by the end of the year.
Don Miller update on Tire Program
Don Miller reported on some information he has collected on the tire
collection program. Bridgestone- Firestone has partnered with River
Network Website. They are doing a “one team - one planet” Tire community
cleanup support program. The program states that tires are one of the largest
recycled resources. Bridgestone’s numbers show that tires are able to recycle
or properly dispose of 85% of tires that are generated. This is EPA’s figures.
This leaves 15% of resource that are still not being reclaimed. The web site
states the “one team - one planet” stent tire community cleanup program is
aiming to eradicate the problem of tires littering our natural environment
being on the side of the road, in our creeks, and elsewhere. New community
cleanup programs that recycle stent tires collected during any river network
cleanup event or any organized cleanup event will collect the tires free of
charge. Our goal is to capture the remaining 15% of tires that is ending up in
our environment.
Don also spoke on Mono Fills which is a secured tire landfill to hold tires for
future viable programs to reuse that material. Mono Fill is sort of a
sophisticated storage unit for tires.
A committee member stated a Mono Fill is used for sort of a testing fill in
landfills. Example; if they used a Mono Fill for tires. They would seclude
the tires from other landfill items. The Mono Fill tires are monitored and
tested to see if any toxins were present.
Don Miller will contact the River Network to see if they will support our
Tired for Tires program and report back to the committee next month.
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Jim Lambert stated our goal is to create an amnesty program where we allow
people to bring in their tires at no cost. Our experience is if you add a cost
you will have people bringing them to you but you won’t get 100% of the
tires. Our Electronics program is a great example. As soon as we stopped
charging for the electronics we doubled our collection and it keeps growing
as the residents continue to hear we offer a free collection.
We have talked about creating an amnesty program where we would work
with Municipalities and tie it into a continuous tire collection program.
New Business:
Monroe County completed an illegal dumpsite survey. Jim Lambert
presented a list of the illegal dumpsites in Monroe County that need to be
addressed. Jim asked the committee to discuss how to target and plan on
getting volunteers to help get these sites cleaned.
Ed Cramer stated that he spoke with Jim Becker who was in touch with
Scott Besser for an update on the tire fee charged to customers from tire
distributer companies. Ed reported Scott is still working on this and will
update the committee at the next meeting.
Jim Lambert stated Legislation has banned electronics from landfills.
Legislation has made manufactures responsible for taking back their
electronics. It also requires the seller of these products to set up recycling
programs and register their program to take back your material based on
what you sell. Manufactures hired electronic recyclers on board instead of
creating their own recycling programs. They cannot charge for collecting
electronics, they have to accept them back and charge the cost back into the
consumer’s price for new products. This is why the collection of electronics
has now become free.
Our local radio station WSBG in Stroudsburg asked us to participate in a
Halterman’s Auto Event Day in Stroudsburg. As a marketing tool to get
people to visit the Auto store, the Authority offered an Electronic Recycling
collection along with DES shredding paper for the day. We received 22,000
lbs of electronics and shredded paper from this one day event.
Ed Cramer suggested forming a litter and recycling round table meeting with
all the representatives from the municipalities as they had done a couple of
years ago. This might be a way to get representation from municipalities and
update them on all the programs that are now in place.
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Jim Lambert responded that the round table sounds like a great idea. Craig
Todd and Don Miller are members of our SWAC committee. We are in the
middle of creating our ten year Solid Waste plan; one of the things we
discuss is partnership with the Chamber and other Environmental groups.
Theresa Merli and I have discussed getting the Environmental Authorities
together to meet once a month to pool our resources. Craig Todd has
volunteered to use their education programs to help teach recycling. One of
our recommendations in our solid waste plan is to incorporate other agencies
in working together.
Ed Cramer stated municipalities used to make donations to the Monroe
County Beautification Program. Jim Lambert responded Coolbaugh and
Stroud did make donations to that program.
Jim Lambert stated the County has issued the Authority a check for the
Hotel Tax. Now the Authority is on track with receiving payments from the
County through the rest of the year. The Authority has received the full
$15,000.00 from the previous Deer Program. We have opened up a separate
account for the Litter and Deer funds. The accounting for these funds will be
held separately for this project. The Authority has spent minimal costs on the
Litter Program and spent minimal amount if any on the cost of litter
disposal. The municipalities have been disposing their litter trash. Our
supplies have been given to us by Penn DOT. We will continue to get
supplies from Penn DOT until these programs stop. The Deer and the Litter
programs are a part time job. We are working these programs in with the
daily work load but charging the two programs separately for hours spent on
them. The Tire program will cost the Authority money to run the program.
We will have to figure out a way to fund this program. One idea was brought
to the table was to ask the Municipalities for contributions to the Tire
Program and share in the cost. All the municipalities have asked the
Authority at one time or another for help with tire disposal. This program
would benefit the whole county. Tire disposal and dump sites are such an
issue in this county and needs to be addressed somehow.
A Committee member asked if the Waste Authority received money from
any grants for help with funding the tire program.
Jim responded there might be a Hazardous Waste Program that tires would
fall under. I believe we could get reimbursed 50% of our cost. Our
Electronics Program falls under this grant. The Electronics Program took
two years to be approved. Over the years the Grants for recycling programs
were drastically reduced.
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Mr. Joe Battisto asked about the graffiti and if the Authority had any
response on this issue. Jim Lambert responded this is something that is out
of the Authorities hands. Graffiti is not a solid waste issue; the Authority is
not allowed to deal with anything other than solid waste issues. The
Authorities Realm of allowance has two restrictions, we do not have
jurisdiction outside the county and it has to be related to Solid Waste
Management or we are not able to do it.
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Adjournment
Mr. Ed Cramer made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:30am.
Mr. Theresa Merli seconded the motion. The motion passed by a
unanimous consent.
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