COURT HOUSE – At its April 19 meeting, Middle Township Committee introduced an ordinance placing responsibility on retailers for control of their shopping carts.
Administrator Kimberly Krauss said abandoned carts have become a nuisance, causing Public Works employees to spend inordinate amounts of time collecting the carts from bus stops, neighborhoods, and even roadways.
“Policing them has become a full-time job,” Krauss said.
She added that the Public Works facility has as many as 500 carts stored, which retailers have not claimed, even when contacted to do so. Relieving taxpayers of the cost of collecting and storing the carts is the ordinance’s goal.
“We are not looking at this as a source of revenue,” Deputy Mayor Theron “Ike” Gandy said. The goal is to incentivize retailers with more than 15 carts to police their property.
In 2016, the municipality introduced an ordinance that would’ve established penalties on retailers for carts that left their premises. On the evening when the committee was to vote on the ordinance’s adoption, representatives of some of the municipality’s larger retail establishments asked the governing body to withdraw the ordinance, promising to institute procedures to control the carts and keep them from becoming an eyesore, or even a safety hazard.
Mayor Timothy Donohue, reluctant to involve government in the process, admitted that the retailers have not kept their end of the agreement. The municipality, Donohue said, is, once again, left with the need to take action.
The ordinance presents establishments with multiple options for cart control. It requires that retailers with 15 or more carts develop a written plan of action to be filed with the municipal clerk. The ordinance sets regulations for public signage to be posted at the retailer’s establishment.
The ordinance offers establishments five specific options for cart containment and leaves open the option for the retailer to present other methods for onsite containment. The alternative methods must be approved by the municipality.
Discretion is left to the business administrator and her designees to determine whether the ordinance was violated. Carts located outside an establishment’s premises or parking areas are subject to being impounded by the municipality.
Impounded carts are subject to a $250 fine per cart per day once the municipality notified the establishment that the carts require pickup. The ordinance gives the business administrator flexibility to work with cooperative retailers without imposing fines.
The ordinance is likely to be controversial with large retailers. It is scheduled for a public hearing and potential adoption at Middle Township Committee’s May 17 meeting, at 6 p.m.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
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