Girard mayor wants private donation boxes cleaned up

GIRARD

The clothes-donation drop-off box in the parking lot at the Family Dollar store was neat and clean Wednesday morning.

At the side of the parking lot in front of the Everyday Mart farther down State Street, another donation box also was tidy and brightly painted.

But the boxes scattered throughout the city aren’t always so good-looking. There are times when Girard Mayor Jim Melfi has seen them a mess, with bags of clothes and other junk piled up around them.

So he’s asked the city council to consider legislation to ban them from the front of businesses to the back.

Even better, he believes, is if they would be fenced in so that any residents behind the businesses wouldn’t be stuck looking at them.

The legislation is in committee, and he expects it will be brought onto the floor at the council’s meeting in September, he said Wednesday.

“Fifteen years ago, the city spent $2.5 million to bury utilities underground in conjunction with the widening of Route 422 to make it more pleasing aesthetically,” he said.

“Now we have a situation where these bins are just out there, and they attract debris,” he said.

Read more about the situation in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.