Some residents wasted little time taking the decorations off their Christmas trees and discarding them for pickup by a borough public works crew. Trees were seen along street curbs as early as Christmas night.

Borough personnel held the first of their three holiday tree retrievals Jan 2. A second pickup is planned for tomorrow, Jan. 9, and final date for retrieval is set for Friday, Jan. 16.

The trees are ground up for mulch.

***

The first taste of winter for 2015 came on Saturday for the borough public works department. Crews kept the streets passable and safe for motorists by applying a road salt mixture on the town's heavily traveled streets, Chestnut and Second.

When snow accumulates, the first areas getting attention from public works personnel along the main roads are in front of the fire department station on Cherry Street, parking areas for police vehicles at the Fourth Street police station and borough hall and by the town's three churches.

If you don't want your vehicle ticketed or towed when the mayor declares a snow emergency in the borough, your vehicle must be moved from posted streets, such as on Chestnut Street. Owners are expected to move vehicles to the many streets not deemed as snow emergency routes.

Other neighborhoods are getting together and cooperating to move their vehicles to only one side of the street, so snow plows can clear the area, then moving the vehicles to the opposite side, so curb to curb snow removal can be accomplished.

Residents who reside near a fire hydrant are asked to spend a few more minutes removing the snow by the fire hydrant. In the event of a fire, the fire department needs immediate access, so lives and property could be at stake if access is delayed.

Borough ordinances stipulate snow must be cleared from sidewalks 24 hours after it stops snowing.

Property owners are reminded people throwing snow out on the street can face fines. Instead turn the snow blower or shovel toward the yard.