By David Tyler

On Wednesday night, the Manlius Town Board was introduced to the new virtual world order of municipal government meetings, and one of the main topics was brush pickup, which has been put on hold during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, which typically receives brush from the Town of Manlius, continues to receive trash, but has eliminated its brush services during the lockdown.
“Brush is not an emergency service,” Town Supervisor Ed Theobald said. “Trash could become an emergency service.”
“We have nothing committed at the moment,” Councilor Sara Bollinger said. “But I want everyone to know that we are working on an interim plan that might resolve [the problem].”
The three villages within the town all continue to provide brush pickup services, which they are allowed to do because they provide the service with their own staff and each have their own location to drop the waste.
Because it contracts with a third party for brush removal and doesn’t have its own location to drop the waste, the town is in a different circumstance.

Town to test virtual public hearings
There was some discussion about whether to move forward with the public hearings that were scheduled for later in April or postpone them until a time when the board can meet with the public in person.
“Some boards are holding public hearings through virtual technology like we’re using here,” attorney Tim Frateschi told the board. “The key is there would have to be a way for the public to interact with us.”
“We have lost a lot of momentum on a lot of things we were working on,” said Councilor Katelyn Kreisel. “We can’t leave all town business on hold until we can all meet in person.”
In the end, the board decided to postpone two public hearings – one on a solar array project on Taft Road and a second on an amendment to the town’s code on solar developments – until May 13.
A third public hearing, on the installation of stop signs in the XXX neighborhood, will be held virtually on April 22 as originally scheduled. Because it is largely noncontroversial, that public hearing will be the “guinea pig,” and will allow the board to work out any of the technical kinks of holding a virtual public hearing, Theobald said.
No spike in domestic violence
Although some police agencies locally have witnessed a spike in domestic violence calls during the lockdown period, Manlius Police Chief Mike Crowell said that hasn’t been the case in Manlius.
He did report that the department is dealing with three to four social distancing calls a day.
Crowell said the TMPD continues to caution the public regarding scams related to COVID-19, including scams where people impersonate police officers.
Overall, however, call volume has been down during the lockdown period.

Earth Day activities in doubt
The board is also considering ways to celebrate Earth Day in the era of coronavirus.
“I thought maybe what we could do as a town, in the spirit of sustainability, was to do things in our neighborhoods,” said Councilor Heather Waters.
The board’s next meeting is April 22, the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. In the meantime, councilors planned to use social media to encourage residents to clean up in front of their own residences.
OCRRA has canceled its traditional Earth Day litter removal program and is encouraging families to clean up litter in front of their own homes and put it in their curbside trash for removal.
They also issued a reminder that some items that residents may find, including tires, electronics and construction and demolition materials should not be put in their curbside trash.