Recycling Committee

The Sykesville Town Council has given its unanimous approval to a curbside recycling program, which will begin Oct. 5.Crews will collect recyclables from homeowners twice a month and sort items at the town maintenance center."

Students at Elkridge Elementary School soon may compose recycling songs, collect telephone books or build a compost bin at their school, in a new program called Recycling Rangers.Created by the county Department of Public Works and the Elkridge Area Jaycees, the program that began Monday is intended to teach children the details of effective recycling."The school has done a very good job in teaching them the basics of recycling," said Richard Keller, chairman of the Elkridge Area Jaycees' recycling committee.

Sykesville begins its new trash and recycling schedule this week.The only town in the county to collect trash itself is cutting residential collection from twice a week to once a week and increasing semimonthly curbside recycling to once a week.The maintenance department divides the town at Jennifer Way. Crews will collect trash from residents east of Jennifer on Tuesdays and west of the line on Wednesdays. Commercial trash collection continues to be twice weekly.Curbside recycling will take place every Friday.

...*TC The Mount Airy Town Council last night appointed three residents to vacancies on two town commissions.James C. Stargel was appointed to the Recycling Committee. The two vacancies on the Parks and Recreation Committee were filled by Tucker Lazarus and 13-year-old Nathaniel Gaskin, who will serve as the commission's teen-age member.The council was scheduled last night to vote on whether to allow developer Robert Peacock to begin construction on a new road through his 13-acre property near Interstate 70 and Route 27, but the vote had not been taken by press time.

To reach the state-mandated goal of recycling 15 percent of Carroll County's garbage, more densely populated areas will require curbside pickup of recyclables, said James E. Slater, director of the Carroll County Department of Natural Resources Protection.The county is also planning a new recycling garage at Northern Landfill on Route 140 to replace the barn now used on Route 97. The garage will be made of metal and designed to be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs as the county develops its comprehensive recycling plan, Slater said.

Residents get to have a say in how their town government is run whenthe polls open for Town Council elections Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Town House, 7547 Main St.Citizens who live within the town limits and are registered either with the town or the Carroll County Board of Election Supervisors may vote.Voting is by paper ballot and no write-ins are allowed. The top three vote-getters will earn seats on the Town Council for a four-yearterm.A total of 928 residents are eligible to vote in this election.

Like their counterparts elsewhere in the state, Carroll County residents have grudgingly recognized that recycling is their best chance for dealing with the region's solid waste disposal problem. The county has a state-of-the-art landfill in Reese. But removing recyclables from the waste stream will save residents millions of dollars over the long run.The problem is that while everyone agrees recycling is the way to go, no one knows quite how to get there. The county commissioners are looking at county-wide curbside pick-ups for recyclables only.

MOUNT AIRY -- Mandatory recycling is coming to town. Get ready.About 25 percent of town residents now recycle, but beginning July 7, everybody will have to."We're talking about serious recycling," Mayor Gerald R. Johnson said. "All we're doing is asking for your cooperation."About 30 people attended a meeting last night at Mount Airy Middle School to hear details about how the town will collect trash and recyclables.Not all of them were happy about the town's decision to collect trash once a week instead of twice.

Daryl K. Doxzen is continuing a family tradition in Sykesville.With his appointment to the Town Council on Monday, Mr. Doxzen became the third generation of his family to serve the municipality."

Last December, the town's recycling program reached a zenith when citizens dropped off a record amount of goods at the bin in Watkins Park.But after this coming December, the bin may be a memory, and the town's volunteer recycling program could be dismantled.Still, that's a positive -- if ironic -- development, say volunteers who've logged many hours to make the town's recycling efforts successful.That's because the phasing out of voluntary programs means a countywide, mandatory recycling program is at hand.