Beverly Yard Waste Compost Site Still Closed After Tuesday Fire

BEVERLY, MA — The Beverly Standley Street compost yard waste site remained closed on Wednesday — one day after a fire ignited in one of the compost piles.

The city apologized for the inconvenience amid the ongoing sanitation workers' strike, and said on Wednesday morning that it was uncertain whether the site would be closed throughout a second straight day.

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Standley Street had been the site where new dumpsters were just delivered this weekend to expand the city's recycling capacity during the strike against Republic Service. The site had been scheduled to be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Beverly Mayor Michael Cahill said at a community forum on the former Family Dollar store site on Tuesday night that he was awaiting confirmation on when the site would reopen.

While talks resumed in the strike between Local Teamsters Union 25 and Republic Services last week, the union rejected the company's most recent contract proposal by a vote of more than 84 percent of its membership — leaving no end in sight to the strike that has disrupted trash pickup and virtually eliminated recycling collection since the strike was called on July 1.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)