SAUGUS — Just a few weeks after confronting an ongoing trash issue at Saugus’ Square One Mall, Health Department Director John Fralick said he’s received complaints of more illegal dumping, this time at clothing donation bins on Main Street.
Instead of rubbish, however, Fralick said non-clothing donations that were likely left with good intentions have only caused more problems as items piled next to the receptacles are exposed to the elements.
“Donation pick-up is on Sundays, and then people came down and just threw everything they owned right around the bins,” he said. “There was a lot of debris, a lot of stuff that wouldn’t actually fit in the bin. It was just kind of an ugly-looking dumping ground.”
To solve the issue, Fralick said the Health Department called the New York-based bin company to update to a more frequent pick-up schedule, although he added there is a chance the bins will simply be removed until after the pandemic is over.
“The nature of that type of business is that it does turn into a kind of dumping ground at certain times,” Fralick said. “With everything that’s going on with people cooped up in their houses and not really going out as much as they normally would, we’re seeing a lot more (home) clean-outs.”
Saugus has had multiple instances of illegal dumping since the pandemic hit the North Shore mid-March.
At a Board of Health meeting earlier this month, Chair William Heffernan discussed large piles of trash accumulating in a lot outside the Square One Mall’s Sears entrance, attributing their appearance to the mall’s months-long pandemic-related closure.
“With the mall basically shuttering its doors for upwards of three months, I like to think it was because of COVID,” he said of what he thought may have triggered the problem. “This was definitely a new issue in my opinion.”
Thankfully, Fralick said the Board of Health now has a “clear line of communication” with the mall’s operations director so that the town can quickly address issues as they arise.
In addition, Saugus has plans to post ‘no dumping’ signs in the area to act as visual reminders to residents that the lot is still off-limits.
“That’s an easy visual for people to start abiding by those rules,” Fralick said. “We’re trying to crack down on all illegal dumping. Obviously there are a bunch of different issues that come from that kind of thing. Destroyed property, destroyed belongings — they turn into more of an issue (during a pandemic) than they normally would be.”
