Trash-Pickup Recording a Rude Awakening
When their phones rang in the middle of the night this week, many residents expected the worst.
Death in the family? Fire?
No, just the bureaucratic tone of town supervisor Paul Feiner’s taped voice, advising of a change in local trash pickup times.
Couldn’t this have waited until morning?
“I thought it was a member of my family,” said Barbara Merriwether, 52. “I thought something was wrong.”
The timing of the 300 calls, of course, wasn’t intentional. Someone at the police department had forgotten to turn off an automated calling program Monday evening, and the system ran through the night.
The only bad news in the affair may be for Feiner, who is trying to unseat incumbent Republican Benjamin Gilman in the 20th Congressional District. Feiner said he may throw a party--with his own money--for everyone who was called after 9 p.m.
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