The Greenburgh Town Board will meet Tuesday morning, January 8th, to discuss capital budget requests that department heads have forwarded to the Town Board for consideration. Among the more innovative requests: funds to purchase a one arm bandit sanitation truck. The truck that we are looking at purchasing will be at Town Hall at 9:30 AM for a demonstration. We will set aside cans along the new roadway just above Town Hall so Town Board members and the public can see how the trucks operate. You are invited to attend this work session demonstration.
The Greenburgh Town Board is considering the possibility of purchasing a ONE ARMED BANDIT -- a new, more efficient garbage truck that uses one employee instead of three to pick up garbage. As employees in the sanitation department retire the workforce would shrink. Communities that have purhased the truck report faster service and fewer workers compensation claims by injured public works employees. The City of White Plains has been using these vehicles. The Town of Harrison is also interested in the truck.
The “One-Armed Bandit” is an automated refuse collection truck that has the capacity of auto-loading refuse containers three to four times the size of a regular garbage can. It also is capable of making 700 to 1,200 stops per route with a single operator, “all while increasing efficiency for the residents and safety for the operators,” said a report on the system.
When we purchase the truck the town will provide residents with a free, special large container that can be secured by the remote arm on the garbage truck. On collection days, residents will place the container in the street and with a space of four feet between the container and parked vehicles, mailbox, trees or other obstacles. The trash truck driver can then safely pick-up and place back the container in the same location. The automated trash collection program has proven to work well in all types of weather including snow and rain and containers can withstand winds of up to 45 miles per hours.
The program is expected to be less costly than the current system where employees manually place the refuse in the rear loading packer trucks. We will test the truck on some streets initially - and if we like the truck will purchase additional trucks in future years.
_ Paul Feiner
