New committee has a mission

The committee that will be determining the direction, guidelines and focus for what will become the Carpentersville Improvement Committee has come up with a mission statement:

The Carpentersville Improvement Committee pledges to assist residents to understand the importance of property maintenance as it pertains to the general welfare, safety and aesthetics of our community.

Our objective is to preserve existing housing through code enforcement activities and preventative maintenance programming. We are committed to research all avenues of county, state and federal financial resources and to assemble these along with local resources to educate and aid our residents in improving their neighborhoods.

It seems ok … although I would have put “preventative maintenance programming” before “code enforcement activities” as the it would show that education is valued (and preferred) over penalization.

Coinciding with this, the Village has posted information from the Community Development Department that answers “When is a Permit needed?”

More Garbage Regulations

This past Tuesday, an ordinance was discussed that would ban “scavengers” from picking up “white” items (such as appliances) put out at the curb for waste management, making it punishable by a fine. One of the issues raised was that residents are required to put 10 $2.40 stickers on these large items, as well as the fact that the current Village contract amount with ARC expects there to be a certain level of these “white” recyclables that would be picked up.

But, has the Village considered cases where residents put out these items without stickers the evening before pickup with the explicit hope that a “scavenger” would take such an item, thus saving them the $24 (or putting stickers on in the morning, if the item is still there)? Would this really be a “theft of recyclables” as defined in the Municipal Code, if stickers were not present? Or, would the homeowner be fined in accordance with 8.08.100 ? Will they take away residents options in this regard?

In terms of there being a lesser number of these items found at the curb by disposal service workers, could it be due to the fact that many delivery services now include hauling away the old appliance in their delivery options?

What would be the added cost for the Village’s waste disposal and recycling services if a specified level of these items is not received by ARC?