Read about the upgrade to the Village municipal parking lot by Mayor Jim Reardon
PRESS RELEASE ~ August 3, 2011 The Village of Rhinebeck has recently completed an upgrade to their municipal parking lot with the installation of new underground wiring, new and improved architectural lighting, sealing andstriping of the blacktop and construction of new handicap accessible spots. Mayor Jim Reardon states “the final piece to this puzzle has been the installation of a new solar powered Big Belly trash compactor. The Village Board has been struggling with the issue of trash and recycling collection in the Village for a number of years. We have small pole mounted trash baskets that continually are overflowing and spilling trash on the ground, even though we empty them four times per week. Alternatives were explored and we decided that large open style receptacles would possibly lead to additional problems with odors and animal problems”. Reardon goes on to state “we learned of the Big Belly technology and had the owner of the company Mr. Franklin Cruz attend one of our board meetings to present his product to us. Once hearing Mr. Cruz’s presentation the board was duly impressed. The compactor is a self contained unit that compresses trash to 1/5th its original size and does it all by solar power. The unit also contains an on board system that will send a text message to a cell phone notifying us when it needs to be emptied. Along with the compactor are bottle, can and newspaper recycling containers. We also have the ability to monitor the unit to prevent illegal usage. This is not designed for household waste. Illegal use will result in prosecution. We are excited to have this technology up and running and our plan is to begin a phased implementation process expanding the number of units in critical locations within the Village. We are currently in negotiations with two different property owners to perhaps install more units”. Reardon says “I would personally like to thank Mr. Cruz for his help and excellent service in bringing this project to a successful conclusion”.
Rhinebeck Community Forum 