Christmas tree pick-up looking up
Garden Variety has had some complaints from Baltimore readers whose Christmas trees were not picked up by city trucks as scheduled, but we have good news.
KB reports that he called 311 and his tree was gone by the time he got home from work.
"I chose, "Missed mixed refuse pickup" as my complaint, and then typed in the open box that it was not trash but rather my Christmas tree that was not picked up," he writes.
Also, Andy Miller followed my suggestion that he e-mail the contact names on the Department of Public Works press release that announced the pick-ups. He did so, and reports he received answers within five minutes.
Here's what the city had to say:
"You will not be fined for leaving your tree out," wrote Celeste Amato. "We have clearly missed your collections and are alerting the Bureau Head to the errors. Please leave everything in place if you can and we will take corrective action as quickly as possible. You have my contact information if the problems persist."
And Robert Murrow wrote: "Your tree was supposed to be picked up and your recycling should have been picked up. Those were crews errors that should be reported to 311 so they can be corrected. Though we pick up from 210,000 households in Baltimore City, we do occasionally have crew errors. Please let me know your address so I can forward it to senior solid waste management. Thank you."
