Public Services Department

The City of Rockland residents may have two 5-gallon buckets per winter storm and can be picked up at the Public Services Department Transfer Station.

Yes, From December 1 through March 31 a winter parking ban is in effect. No vehicle shall be parked within the maintained limits of any street, municipal parking lot, public way or sidewalk between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and no vehicle shall be parked at any other time on any public street, or public way so as to interfere with or hinder the plowing or removal of snow from the street or public way by the City.

During this time Rockland residents who have and display a valid permit may park in designated public parking spaces in the following municipal parking lots between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

• Thorndike Parking Lot
• Buoy Park
• Harbor Park

The winter parking permit may be obtained from the City Clerk’s office.

The City is responsible for the removal of dead animals from public property only (roads, sidewalks, parks, etc.). We are not permitted to go onto private property for removal. We will, however, pick up the animal (when notified) if it is placed in a trash bag or box and brought out to the curb.

If you are concerned about a pet that has gone missing that we may have picked up, please contact us. Public Services maintains records of all cats and dogs we pick up, and we store remains for a period of time for owners who wish to retrieve them.

If you have a lost pet, please contact the City’s Animal Control for more assistance.

The City of Rockland currently conducts spring and fall leaf and brush pickup.  This is a free service for Rockland homeowners.

The spring pick up is conducted in May and the fall pick up is conducted in November but is contingent on when the leaves fall from the trees.  The timing of when our crews actually pick up in your neighborhood is scheduled based on a specific week for each of 4 zones which the city is broken up into.  The zone schedule will be posted on the city’s web site and at City hall for residents.

Simply put, location, location, location. If your tree is in our right of way, and it is indeed dying and a danger to people and property, then the city will remove it, no charge to the property owner. Secondly, if the tree is not in the city’s right of way, the cost will be the property owners. The city will provide removal of the tree after it is on the ground if the property owner requests it. Third, if the tree spans the line between the right of way and private property, then the city and the property owner will split the costs.

The City of Rockland Public Works Department would like to send a word of caution to our residents who place portable basketball hoops or other objects in the City right-of-way. These items do not belong in the roadways and in fact impose a certain level of liability on residents who place them there. Should someone accidentally hit one of these obstructions with a vehicle or suddenly have to swerve to avoid hitting the obstruction causing them to hit something else the owner of the obstruction may be held liable for any damages caused to the vehicle or other property. This becomes even more of a problem at night when things such as basketball hoops are left in the roadway because they are not reflective and become very difficult to see.

You can up-to-date Transfer Station hours here.

The City’s Solid Waste operation will be undergoing a tremendous amount of transformation in the next several years.  The landfill is used just for building materials and will be closed by 2018.  The landfill closure will eliminate odor as well as keep stormwater from infiltrating the waste, which later needs to be pumped off.  A new building materials disposal design will be developed prior to closure and will segregate the small amount of building materials that are disposed within the City.  Much of the building materials can be diverted or recycled.  The landfill closure will have no impact on household trash that is disposed of at the Hoppers.  Household trash will continue to be transferred to a facility that incinerates the trash.

The City uses single-sort recycling. This means that you do not need to separate your recyclables — you can recycle all approved recyclables together in the first hopper at the Transfer Station.

Approved recyclables are:

• Rigid plastic containers #1-7
• Paper, newspaper, paper bags, magazines, envelopes, flyers, and books
• glass jars and bottles
• paper coffee cups and milk, juice, dairy-free milk and broth cartons
• cardboard, paperboard, and tubes
• metal cans, pots, and pans

The following items are not allowed in the recycling hopper:

• plastic bags, bubble wrap, or plastic wrap
• light bulbs, batteries, or electronics
• Food and yard waste or demolition debris
• bagged recyclables or trash
• to-go lids, styrofoam, straws, or napkins
• hoses, ropes, or textiles
• diapers or pet waste
• sharps, knives, or propane tanks

The City offers a single family household Flat Fee Permit that is valid until the 5/1/2017 of each year and can be purchased at the City’s Transfer Station.  The city also offers an alternate plan where residents can purchase orange trash bags (that signify that the trash in the bag has been paid for). You can view the current orange bag costs here (Bags are to be disposed of with the contents not emptied and used again).  The city also offers a recycling permit which allows residents to use the facility recycling operation, composting, at no charge. Please visit the recycling permit page for more information.

When a snow storm hits, Public Works crew gets busy! The first task is to apply salt or sand & salt mixture to the roads for traction control. This is done with 7 trucks to cover the city efficiently. This mixture also helps to create a brine (slush) under the snow, which makes snow removal easier and helps reduce snow packing to the surface of the road, also reduce damage to the equipment. By following  11 plow routes, we begin the task of plowing 108 lane miles of roadway, each run takes approximately 3 hours to complete. Once the streets are cleared the crew’s then move on to clearing parking lots and sidewalks.

Please remember, in a snow storm all available Public Works crews are busy clearing the streets for your safety. They are working as quickly and safely as possible.

Glass is a difficult commodity to recycle.  Due to our geographic location and the density and weight of glass it is difficult to make glass recycling cost effective.  The good news is that glass is inert and can be broken up and used as aggregate or landfill.  Currently we landfill glass but are working on developing a process to use ground glass in our road projects.

All proposed projects need a street opening permit when they would disturb any city roads, sidewalks, parking lot, paths or any other surface that would expect to see traffic. The interested party would go to the city’s code enforcement office to receive the application. The project would be reviewed by the police dept. for possible traffic control issues, by code enforcement for their concerns and would be overseen by public services. The completed permit would include all three depts. reps. signature. A surety would be also needed from the contractor doing the work. The work that is done on our city’s property will be guaranteed for a period of two years

The street opening process makes the city aware of work being done on our city’s property. It has to be done in a safe, consistent and correct manner. The permit process insures this.

Once the streets have been cleared toward the end of the storm two sidewalk machines will start plowing the approximately 25 miles of sidewalks, first priority will be school zones and working out from there. The time it takes to complete all sidewalks varies largely due to amount of snow, breakdowns and man power; each machine will travel 2-3mph.

Our city streets do not surface drain. In other words, we depend on a huge network of manholes and pipe to carry rainwater and melting snow away. The street sweeper is a critical part of that process. Winter sand, leaves and just plain old dirt and debris would clog that plumbing if not picked up first. In the spring when there is a lot of sand it is especially important to have the sweeper out. Public services are gradually reducing the “sand the snow on the road” method and replacing it with “soften the snow with salt and remove it” method. This will reduce the sand from being put out in the first place.

The job of prioritizing which road get fixed next is a daunting challenge. The job is made easier by Public service’s using the RSMS program provided to them by the State. This ranking system takes all of the soft, subjective reasons out of the mix and relies on hard data. Main arteries to highly used public locations, extent of damage, amount of use, whether other utilities are also interested in working there are all variables when making decision on which roads are repaired.

Snowplows deposit snow only one way – off the roadway, and into the right-of-way and driveways located in the right-of-way. Our job is to keep the roadway cleared to allow safe passage of vehicles and emergency equipment, and unfortunately that means snow will end up in driveways.

City owned equipment runs at any given time. Obviously, it is easy to understand why the snow removal equipment is out during a blizzard at 2:00 in the morning. However, often times a pipe project is running into the evening or the best time to clean the streets or vacuum out manholes is after hours when traffic is minimal. Public services, while exempt from the noise ordinance, makes every attempt to lessen the distraction.

Yes if one of our plow trucks hits your mailbox we will in most cases repair or replace the letterbox as to make it usable again. This will be done at the earliest convenience of the Public Services Department.