Recently, the Watertown Boys & Girls Club has been receiving some unwanted drop-offs in the form of furniture, mattresses, and other items being left in or around the club’s dumpster.
The club serves about 150 school-age children each day in its afterschool and aquatics programs. Usually, the items are dropped off at night, and they are costing the Club money, said Executive Director Gary Beatty.
“I can’t say for certain if it’s people being vindictive, or if it’s like simply miseducation,” Beatty said. “I get the sense that some people see a dumpster in our parking lot, and assume that it’s just a place that’s available for the public to come and dump their unwanted belongings.”
Sometimes people arrive with the items in a truck, Beatty said, and other times they just carry them along the path through Saltonstall Park and leave them. The dumpster, however, is not a place for the public to dispose of items.
“Unfortunately, it seems to be a place now where people will dump their large items,” Beatty said. “Over the last couple of weeks a few mattresses have been dumped here. Will often get parts of sectional couches or large desks, anything that they don’t feel that they can get rid of through their regular trash pickup.”
The dumpster is picked up by Republic Services, Beatty said, and the company will not pick up some of the things left by people.
“There are certain items that they are prohibited from taking, so we ultimately then have to pay out of the Club’s operating fund to get rid of this stuff, and that’s money where we’d rather be spending that on programming for the kids and keeping it in the Club,” Beatty said.
Some of the prohibited items include mattresses. Typically, the Club has to pay between $200 and $500 for items to be removed, Beatty said.
“Anytime we have to write a check to a vendor to come and take this stuff away, it’s usually frustrating,” Beatty said. “And then it makes her or fundraising efforts more difficult.”
A nearby resident heard about the dumping and lent a hand.
“One of our neighbors from the apartment complexes across the street here on Whites Ave., Jon Spector, he was really concerned about the dumping that was happening, and he ended up making an in-kind donation,” Beatty said. “So he paid a vendor to come and take stuff away, and I think at that point the bill was 450 bucks or something.”
Beatty said the Club has been working with the Watertown Police to try to log the incidents, try to identify the suspects, and recover the cost of disposal. The club has a security camera, but it does not always capture the license plate or identify the people dumping the items.
Information on options for the public to dispose of their unwanted bulk items can be found on the Watertown Department of Public Works website, by clicking here.