JAY — Selectpersons voted Monday to eliminate double-route pickup days for trash following a holiday, beginning with Christmas. There are seven double-route pickup days a year.

Normally, when a holiday falls on a regular pickup day, trash pickup does not happen on that day. Instead, the Transfer Station crew picks up trash on the route that fell on the holiday on the next scheduled work day. They will also do the regular scheduled route and pick up trash and recyclables.

Town Manager Ruth Cushman said due to the closeness of Thanksgiving Day, double-route pickup days will go on for that holiday.

Since employees have both Thanksgiving Day and Friday off, the crew will pick up trash only for the route that falls on the holiday on Wednesday, Nov. 27. The Friday makeup day will be done Monday, again trash only.

On the regular routes, scheduled trash and recyclables are collected as normal.

The decision followed a discussion on the matter of the Transfer Station crew being smaller due to elimination of positions. There are four employees, including one supervisor.

The double-route days are an ongoing problem, Cushman said.

Trash is picked up on the makeup days but not recyclables, she said. Residents either bring their recyclables to the station or hold them for another week.

She asked the board if the double-route pickup days could be eliminated.

People have a choice to take their trash to the station themselves or hold it for another week, Cushman said.

Chairman Steve McCourt said in his opinion people do not like to hold trash for a week during hot days.

“I suppose they have the option of bringing it in,” he said.

Highway Department foreman John Johnson said in his three years of overseeing the Transfer Station operation, it is a mixed-up day anyway.

Many people put out both trash and recyclables on the makeup day, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com