{"id":2456957,"date":"2020-04-08T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-landfill-reopens-for-limit-hours-as-home-improvement-projects-on-uptick-during-down-time\/"},"modified":"2020-04-08T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T04:56:00","slug":"pitkin-county-landfill-reopens-for-limit-hours-as-home-improvement-projects-on-uptick-during-down-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-landfill-reopens-for-limit-hours-as-home-improvement-projects-on-uptick-during-down-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County landfill reopens for limit hours as home-improvement projects on uptick during down time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With public health orders confining most Aspen and Pitkin County residents to their homes, focus has naturally fallen on our humble abodes and how to make them nicer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201c(People want to) paint that bathroom they\u2019ve been meaning to paint for a long time but couldn\u2019t find the time,\u201d said Tony Wells, manager of Ace Hardware below Clark\u2019s Market in Aspen. \u201cPeople are trying to stay sane.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">All that home improvement and spring cleaning, however, caused the Pitkin County Landfill to close its gates to the public Monday after scores of residents showed up with truckloads of junk, which <a id=\"N0x22a7ca0N0x240b190:N0x22a7ca0N0x24977f0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-lengthens-stay-at-home-order-to-april-30-limits-group-down-to-5-people\/\">violates public health orders<\/a> forbidding all but essential travel, said Brian Pettet, Pitkin County public works director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Landfill employees on Monday turned away 44 people with debris from painting or garage cleanups or minor home construction projects. Some of those would-be dumpers became \u201cirate\u201d after being told they couldn\u2019t deposit their items, Pettet said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey\u2019re driving to the scale house and within (more than) 6 feet of the person at the window,\u201d Pettet told Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday. \u201c(They\u2019re having an) angry discussion about why they can\u2019t bring in construction materials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Pitkin County public health order, and a <a id=\"N0x22a7ca0N0x240b1f0:N0x22a7ca0N0x2497a30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/colorado-gov-jared-polis-extends-statewide-stay-at-home-order-until-at-least-april-26\/\">similar state order<\/a>, now in effect ask residents with \u201cnon-essential\u201d jobs to stay home for all but necessary tasks like grocery shopping and medical appointments. All non-essential travel is restricted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In accordance with the health orders, the landfill has been restricting dumping only to commercial garbage and recycling haulers, as well as county residents without commercial trash and recycling service, Pettet said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But on Monday, after the repeated incidents involving incensed residents with non-essential loads to dump, landfill and county officials closed the gate to the facility just off Highway 82 in an effort to protect employees and the public, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOur employees are on the frontline enforcing the public health order,\u201d Pettet said. \u201cWe needed some assistance with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Residents without trash or recycling service would have to hold onto those items for the rest of the month until the public health order expires April 30, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But that proposal didn\u2019t sit well Tuesday with Commissioners Patti Clapper and Kelly McNicholas Kury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe absolutely have to find an alternative (for residents),\u201d McNicholas Kury said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The solution commissioners settled on Tuesday \u2014 leaving a recycling dumpster and a smaller dumpster for other trash outside the closed gate \u2014 was determined Wednesday to be unworkable, Pettet said. Commercial trash trucks turning in to the landfill poses a safety hazard, he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Instead, the landfill will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for county residents who need to dump household trash and recycling. A landfill employee wearing some version of protective gear will meet those residents at the facility gate, maintain social distancing and inspect the load, Pettet said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Those with non-essential trash will be turned away, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis is not for someone doing a remodel or cleaning out the garage,\u201d Pettet said. \u201cWe are not open for someone cleaning out their garage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The only area facility now accepting non-essential trash is the Garfield County Landfill in Rifle, Pettet said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Both Wells at Ace Hardware and Jay Montano, manager at the Miners Building in Aspen, said they\u2019ve seen a significant increase in people doing home improvement projects since the public health orders went into place. Hardware and home improvement stores are considered essential retailers because they sell parts and supplies to fix essential services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Montano said many customers are trying to stay busy and entertain children, making refinishing furniture and painting the most popular projects he\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThings they put off, they now have the time to do,\u201d Montano said. \u201cA lot of cleaning (supplies) have been heading out the door left and right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jauslander@aspentimes.com\">jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-landfill-reopens-for-limit-hours-as-home-improvement-projects-on-uptick-during-down-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With public health orders confining most Aspen and Pitkin County residents to their homes, focus has naturally fallen on our humble abodes and how to make them nicer. \u201c(People want to) paint that bathroom they\u2019ve been meaning to paint for a long time but couldn\u2019t find the time,\u201d said Tony Wells, manager of Ace Hardware [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 05:30:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}