Riverhead offers Free Firewood Day to residents
Riverhead's town board has created a Free Firewood Day for residents to pick up trees and tree limbs that have been piling up at the town's yard waste facility in Calverton.
But while the resolution passed Tuesday night explains how to get a permit and authorizes the sanitation superintendent to issue them, one very important thing was left out -- the day it would take place.
That's because there is no special day.
Town residents are free to go to the facility on Youngs Avenue whenever it is open. And they don't need to get a permit, just call up and make an appointment.
"We just wanted to formalize the process," Town Supervisor Sean Walter explained after the town board's unanimous vote to authorize Free Firewood Day. Actually, he added, people already have been going to the yard waste facility for some time to pick up firewood.
Like other towns, Riverhead's yard waste facility is overloaded with trees, tree branches and other debris left behind by superstorm Sandy.
What the town wants to do is coordinate trips so that only a few residents show up at any one time. "And no chain saws," Walter added.
The town yard waste facility is on Youngs Avenue near the town animal shelter, and is open five days a week -- Thursday to Monday -- from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Town residents can make an appointment by calling 631-727-3200, ext. 391.
Ever since Sandy hit Long Island in October, Riverhead officials have been looking for ways to get rid of the broken trees and limbs from their town, as well as trying to keep out wood from other towns.
Some firms sought to deliver wood chips to Riverhead's many farms, forcing the town to pass a law limiting the import of mulch to only what the farmer needed for his or her own use.
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