ConCom approves restoration plans from Home Depot

The Norwood Conservation Commission (ConCom) met recently and signed off on a plan from representatives of Home Depot on Route 1 to hopefully reduce dumping in the riverfront area on the property behind the building itself.

Conservation Agent Carly Rocklen said there was a report recently of dumping in the area, adding that the Health Department was also notified, as the material that was dumped – pumpkins in this specific instance – had the potential to attract rodent activity.

Rocklen said Home Depot – that is to say Home Depot associates – promptly cleaned up the area, but she said there was still some material there, and she wanted to both confirm the plan to remove the remainder and work out a plan to keep dumping from happening there again. She added that “No Dumping” signs were also added to the property.

“So they cleaned it up, installed “No Dumping” signs and then there was the remainder of waste that I chatted about them removing,” Rocklen said. “I had spoken with our Chair (Kelsey Quinlan) and our Vice Chair (Catherine Walsh) about this, and they had brought up the suggestion of putting a fence high enough so that waste won’t blow with the wind into that area, which seems to be one of the ways that waste gets in there.”

Home Depot representative Stephanie Dennis said that intentional dumping occurs there as well.

“Because Massachusetts is such a difficult state to get rid of some items, a lot of – I call them customers, so we’ll call them customers – they’ll drive over and they’ll throw things in,” she said. “I personally went down there last Saturday with my management team and pulled a tire out, and we don’t sell tires. So we do catch a lot of customers tossing items into our dumpster and the wetlands.”

Dennis said they installed a temporary fence as high as they could per Home Depot corporate guidelines.

“But the installation of a taller fence would have to go through Home Depot Corporate, a process of which we’ve also started,” she said. “I had the landscapers out there today and they’re getting a price quote on an actual fence to put on the curb, but unfortunately it’s not a decision that we can make as store managers.”

Dennis said several other Home Depot directors need to sign off on it, but she said the need to keep trash out of the area is really there and could cause Home Depot problems in the future, so it’s better to “just nip it in the bud” right now.

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“We’ve moved product off the curb, we’ve worked with our vendors that have the live goods and plants and moved all that stuff near our building as well so nothing really exists there, and we’ve spent $30,000 on landscaping excavation going over and cleaning everything up,” she said. “We just want to be good partners and good neighbors to you, but it’s just kind of constantly sending associates over the curb and myself and the managers’ team, it’s just a concern, especially in weather like yesterday when it was 10 degrees out. I can’t in my values send an associate out to get trash in a wetlands or the water, because if something happens to that associate, it’s terrible and it’s on us as store leaders.”

Dennis commiserated with ConCom members about dumping also taking place in their dumpsters.

“I have found mattresses, vanities, dish sets, bedding, weird stuff you can’t get rid of in the bulk trash, they see a dumpster – and we don’t lock our dumpsters – and anyone can just drive to our building and throw stuff in there,” she said.