Bayside's unmanned, 24-hour yard waste drop off site is now closed. But the Village Board is trying to turn a problem into an opportunity by adding a service for residents, instead of simply eliminating one. 

Village Manager Andy Pederson said DPW crews were out Tuesday morning removing the last of the cinder block retaining wall and repositioning "No Dumping" signs, effectively dismantling the site.

The yard waste drop-off site, located on the north end of Village Hall at 201 E. Fairy Chasm Rd., was open 24 hours a day and unsupervised. This allowed residents the flexibility to stop by any time. However, with odd items like toilets and electronics showing up to a site that was only meant for "anything you can pull or trim from your yard," the board decided it was time to shut it down.

But Bayside resident Elizabeth Dailey said she hasn't seen nearly as much illegal dumping this year as she has in the past and was hoping to keep the site.

"Many people in Bayside enjoy the freedom of attending to their own yard maintenance by disposing of green waste before it accumulates and becomes unsightly," Dailey said. "I, for one, would be willing to pay an annual fee for a security arm with a card key to gain admittance to the site. If enough residents were also on board, this could actually provide revenue to the village."

Pederson said they researched alternatives such as fencing in the area, adding a security arm similar to Grafton and wireless cameras and monitoring. However, each of the ideas comes with substantial cost, he said.

"In the past we put barricades up just to close it at night, but then people would dump it at the road," Pederson said. "The second time, people stole the baracades."

In August, Pederson told Patch there was so much illegal dumping at the yard waste site the Village Board was beginning to consider shutting down the site all together.

That conversation became a reality Thursday night when the Bayside Village Board voted to shut down the site completely.

But in exchange for closing the old site, the village will offer a manned collection time once a month, and possibly more frequently if the demand is there, Pederson said. These will be like mini clean up days, Pederson said, offering residents a chance to not only get rid of yard waste, but extra recyclables and hopefully, shreddables.

"September 18th will be the first time, on a monthly basis, where people will be able to drop off yard waste and recycling," he said. "So, we're actually enhancing part of the service by allowing people to not only drop off yard waste, but if they have extra recycling they can drop that off between 4 and 8 p.m. the third Tuesday of every month."

Residents can still expect to see the traditional, cub-side pickup for yard waste at their regularly scheduled time.