A trashy subject

Isn't it funny how time flies? It seems like yesterday that the Chestnut Hill Community Association Aesthetics Committee spent countless meetings discussing the style of trash can that should grace the corners of Germantown Avenue.

I realized on Tuesday — after a chat with CHCA president Maxine Maddox Dornemann about the possibility of the CHCA contributing toward the cost of additional trash cans — that those meetings were longer ago than I thought. Maxine wasn't sure why the suggestion for a contribution for new trash cans had come from the Aesthetics Committee.

A history lesson: In the 1980s, wooden slatted cans attached to the utility poles were placed along Germantown Avenue. These fell apart and the Streets Department replaced them with the wire mesh kind found all over country, if not the world. The Aesthetics Committee, according to the Local files, began discussing how to improve the wire trash cans in 1997. In 1999, the CHCA board of directors and the Chestnut Hill Business Association board of trustees each voted to contribute $4,500 to match a grant proposed by Bird In Hand. Thirty galvanized steel trash cans were installed at intersections along the Avenue in 2000.

It should be noted that the suggestion that the CHCA once again contribute to the project was made by Dottie Sheffield, an Aesthetics Committee member who founded the Garden District Fund and Bird in Hand and sits on the Business Improvement District board of directors. Dottie did much of the research that brought us the galvanized steel cans.

Some may wonder why we are worrying about the style trash can we should have on Germantown Avenue. Choosing a style of receptacle for a National Historic District — as Chestnut Hill is — is an example of the hard work and persistence members of the Aesthetics Committee have given the community over the years in giving shoppers a unique shopping experience in an historic community.

Let's hope that the CHCA executive committee takes a careful look at its finances and is able to recommend to the board of directors that the Community Association join with the BID and the Garden District Fund to pay for additional cans. Although the Business Improvement District will play a growing role in these kinds of decisions, it continues to be important for the Community Association, which represents the entire neighborhood, to help the business community with projects.

The next step will be teaching people how to use them. The question remains whether pedestrians will walk a few extra yards out of their way to throw something away.

Katie Worrall