By William Hinkle
BEACON HILL -- On Beacon Hill streets, rats gnaw and dig through garbage bags, then scurry across the street. The homeless separate cans and bottle from the trash, despositing their loot for nickels and dimes at registered redemption centers.
As a result, trash pickup and street cleaning have become a major concern of Beacon Hill residents.
"Beacon Hill homes and buildings do not have alleys," said Michelle Snyder, an aide for City Councilor Michael Ross, who represents the neighborhood. "Therefore, garbage is placed out front on sidewalks right off of the street, making trash pickup a major issue."
Everywhere on Beacon Hill, trash pickup is at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and saturday mornings. According to the state sanitary code, trash can only be placed out on the day of collection, or, no earlier than midnight the day before.
"A lot of people put their trash out earlier than they're supposed to," said Donna Petro, president of the Beacon Hill Business Association. "This leads to problems like rats, and takes away from the beauty of our neighborhood."
Residents say that they don't follow regulations because the times allotted for trash pickup combined with state regulations are a nuisance.
"People put their trash out earlier than they're supposed to because waiting until after midnight is an inconvenience," said Alison Gilchrist, a 21 year-old Suffolk University student and Grove Street resident. "We have a small window of time to legally put our trash out."
Using proper bags is also necessary to avoid rodent problems. Many residents put their trash in grocery bags that cannot properly be secured, making tha trash more accessible to rats and the homeless.
Joe Green, the 38-year-old manager of Store 24 on Cambridge Street and vice president of the Beacon Hill Business Association, is chairman of the association's clean streets committee. The committee, he said, monitors the area's trash and mediates between business, residents and City Hall.
When trash regulations are violated, the city gives illegally placed trash bags a green ticket worth a $25 fine.
"The problem is nothing happens when you get a green ticket," Green said. "It is unenforceable, because they aren't always addressed to anybody in particular."
With parking tickets, the city can access all off someone's information from the car's registration. But trash tickets are anonymous - trash does not tell the city anything about the person.
For a one-family building, the city knows to give the ticket to the one family in the building, but for multi-family buildings, it is never obvious who deserves the ticket, Green said. Sometimes the building owner gets the ticket, but the fine usually goes unpaid.
To counter uncollected fines, Councilor Ross suggested a lien go on the building permits. Members of the clean streets committee, however, proposed that adding the fines to quarterly tax bills would have more impact. Changes have yet to be made as concerned parties continue to discuss how to fix the situation.
"Of course we need to raise the fines first," Green said. "Right now, they are too low to even be a nusiance. The way we are doing it right now just isn't working."