Garbage disposal has always been a problem. From this article from 1968 you can see at that time each Town had their own dump area. Those all ended up being closed for various reasons. Today we have the Mill Seat Landfill in the Town of Riga that handles all the landfill for the whole county. It took years to find that location as most towns didn’t want a large landfill area. Mill Seat was open in 1993 and probably will be filled by 2050..
The ad shows Christmas trees selling for $1.50 and up. In the mid 1960s my family sold trees at Christmas time and, if I remember right, ours were priced from $4 to $10 for a giant 15 footer.
The Honeoye Falls Times
Thursday, Dec.12, 1968
Mendon, Rush Dumps Told to Close Mar. 1 Leaving Residents, Packers in Quandary
Mendon and Rush were among four towns given orders by the Monroe County Department of Health to “cease operation of their refuse disposal areas by March 1, 1969, and within six months compact and cover the refuse with fill soil.” Under the orders, no further dumping will be permitted at any of the areas after the effective closing dates.
The other two towns are Clarkson and Hamlin. At the same time the county health department ordered the municipal refuse disposal are of the Town of Chili and a private refuse disposal area in Parma to cease operation by Dec. 6, 1968.
The Health department’s “findings” at the Mendon and Rush refuse disposal areas were listed as follows.
Town of Mendon Refuse Disposal Area in Semmel Road, Sixteen violations for open burning, unconfined dumping, failure to provide effective control for insects and vermin.
Town of Rush Refuse Disposal Area in Stoney Brook Road, Nine violations for open burning, unconfined dumping, failure to compact and cover refuse daily.
Mendon Supervisor Earl Broomfield said this week it is hard to realize what the health department wants. A month ago, he said, the Town of Mendon was commanded for a job well done. He added that there has been no burning on the dump since March 1866, that the town had a contact with a pest control company before the landfill was adopted, then was told the county would take care of it and so the town cancelled the contract.
The Mendon dump is open three days a week for residents use, and two packers have their own keys to use the area for their refuse. the town is 100 percent behind the county to establish disposal facilities and that the county has done nothing about it.
Supervisor William Zimmer of the Town of Rush said the town board of Rush would try to figure out what to do between now and March 1. the Rush dump is open only a day and a half ecah week. There is an attendant there those days, and otherwise the gate is locked and nobody can get in. He added there is no commercial dumping in the Rush disposal area
The Town of Mendon went to some expense in mid-1967 to excavate an area 350 yards by 150 yards to a depth of six to nine feet for a landfill, built a road to it, and a turning space 60 by 25 feet for cars and trucks to bring in their refuse.
The rubbish was to be dumped over a bank into the pit where it could be compacted and covered with dirt and compacted again, but it wasn’t long before people were dumping their rubbish in the turn-around area or simply throwing it over the fence.
.