Danbury Looks A Wee Bit Cleaner

People lined up at 5 a.m. in some locations, and at the PAL building, city workers and volunteers from the moved the line forward at 7:30 a.m., giving people a half-hour jump.

"They're hard to get rid of," said Nick Santos, talking about the old bed frame, barbecue and bedding in the back of his truck.

Fred Brucale had a headboard he wanted to get rid of. It is typically things that won't fit in a garbage bag or its something local trash haulers won't take that people throw away on Clean City Danbury Day. Brucale moved to Danbury from New York City.

"You wouldn't see this in the city. That's the mayor over there. It's great," Brucale said. He waited in line nearly an hour to dump his load.

People who showed up at 7 a.m. to PAL dumped their first load by 8 a.m., and people who arrived earlier were done earlier. By 10:30 a.m., some people had finished three loads.

"In the beginning, we were swamped," Danbury Mayor Mark Bougton said. "Now it's moving smoother."

One trick to the whole process is timing the disposal of each dumpster. If the cars move too quickly, the dumpsters fill up too fast for to remove and replace them on time, said Council President Joe Cavo.

If they can hold back the car line, and let them go one by one, Winter Brothers can remove full dumpsters fast enough to keep a steady pace.

"This is really helpful for everyone," said Jose Alvarado, who dropped off an old Ford 150 bench seat. "It was my wife's grandfather's. It has been around forever."

Shawn Stillman,coordinator, was volunteering with his son. He said a whole lot of stuff that went into dumpsters Saturday is stuff the UNIT will not be pulling out of the woods in September or October.

Another set of volunteers were from the Danbury Fish & Game Club, and club members have been volunteering for Clean City Danbury for seven years, said Bobby Pennell, who said the club members started volunteering when the day got too big for the city's workers to handle it alone.

Danbury runs five sites across the city and people line up hours before the 8 a.m. scheduled opening.