Grounds

Trash Removal

Each year the AVHOA signs a contract with a private company for trash removal. This contract is paid out of the homeowners’ association fees (there will also be a charge for solid waste on your County tax bill, but this charge covers operation of the landfill, not collection). Our current trash collector is B&B Refuse of Clarksburg, Maryland (301) 424 1427.

• Trash pick-up days are Mondays and Thursdays.
• Trash should be placed at the curb in front of your house no later than 7 a.m. on the day of collection (but no earlier than 6 p.m. the evening before).
• The County requires all trash to be in tall, heavy-duty plastic trash containers with secure covers (crows often scavenge trash put out in loose garbage or other bags, making a mess all over the neighborhood streets and sidewalks). Generally, all trash should be bagged before being put inside the trash container. This is especially necessary if you use a trash can larger than 33-gallon capacity because B&B will collect the bags but will not pick up loose trash in larger containers. Please also note that B&B will not collect any materials that fall into the categories that the County recycles (see below), nor hazardous or non-domestic waste (for example, poisonous or caustic materials; paint; gasoline and oil; building debris; tires; volatile solvents; human or animal fecal matter; and dead animals).
• After the trash collection, please put the empty trash containers promptly inside your garage, and clean up any accidental spills.

Recycling

Montgomery County aims to recycle 50% of its solid waste. The County provides curbside collection of items for recycling on Tuesdays. The previous owners should have left a blue plastic recycling container for these items. If you did not find a container when you moved in, call the Division of Solid Waste Services at (240) 777-6410 for a replacement (you can also order containers and other materials from their website: Montgomery County Recycles)

The materials that are accepted for recycling are listed in the attached leaflet. Broadly, they are:

Household wastes

• Mixed paper, which includes newspapers, cereal and similar boxes, and office paper. These items should be placed in brown paper shopping bags, or bundled and tied with string, or put in closed cardboard boxes not bigger than 15 inches wide. All empty cardboard boxes should be flattened and tied in bundles.
• Glass jars and bottles, aluminum and steel cans, aluminum foil, and plastic bottles with necks - but not other types of plastic container. These materials should be rinsed and put in the blue recycling container. Lids and caps should be removed, but the materials should not be crushed (if crushed, they cause problems in the recycling equipment). Because light materials such as soda cans and bottles easily blow away and become a neighborhood nuisance, it is helpful if you put your bundles of papers on top of them to keep them in place until collection.

Yard Wastes

Yard wastes include

• grass clippings, yard trimmings and tree branches. These items should be discarded as follows: grass clippings and yard trimmings: in brown paper recycling bags (you can buy these at Home Depot, grocery stores, and hardware stores) or in a separate plastic trash container marked yard trimmings.
• tree branches: cut into pieces not more than 4 feet long and tied into neat bundles.

Note that the County does not provide vacuum trucks for leaf collection; homeowners must rake and bag the leaves themselves.

Montgomery County regulations forbid private trash collection services from accepting any yard wastes. If you have materials (e.g., tree stumps) that are too large to be included in the normal recycling collection, you can take them to the County Transfer Station located at 16101 North Frederick Road (301) 840 2370) or hire someone to haul them to the Station for you.

Trash Removal and Recycling (Holidays)

B&B Refuse is the company that collects trash. There are no trash or recycling pick-ups on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day.

When a holiday falls on a Monday or a Thursday, a special trash pick-up will be made the day after each of these holidays, and a special recycling pick-up on the Tuesday following a Monday holiday.

Snow Removal

The County will plow the streets and spread salt and/or sand when necessary. However, you are responsible for clearing your own driveway and sidewalks. Montgomery County requires that snow removal from public sidewalks be completed within 24 hours of the end of the snowfall. If this is not done in a timely manner, the County may fine you for non-compliance.

You can check the current status of Montgomery County’s snow removal operation on the county’s websiteSnow removal is a county function.

Street Lights

To report a street light or general light outage contact PEPCO Street lights are not an HOA function. Do not contact any member of the Board of Directors

Montgomery County Department of Transportation gives instructions on reporting street light outage on their website.

Parking

Although the HOA will help to resolve parking issues, street parking in our community is controlled by Montgomery County. If you have issues with visitors and residents parking on the street, the issue can best be resolved by contacting Montgomery County Department of Transportation.

It is best to review the County Code before you call.  The County also has a number of publications that address specific issues:

Chapter 31 of the Montgomery County Code Addresses Parking

You can also contact the County about abandoned and unregistered vehicles.

The Pond

The pond (which won an award from the Keep Montgomery County Beautiful program) is the neighborhoods one significant piece of common open space.

We ask you to help keep it a beautiful and safe place. If you have dogs, clean up after them and do not let them run loose and frighten wild life and children. If you have children, make sure that they understand that the pond is deep and the banks are slippery; therefore, it is NOT a safe place to play–keep them outside the fence. Also make sure that children do not break the branches off the ornamental trees surrounding the pond, or dislodge the rocks in the spillway channel. (The rocks were are an engineering feature to stop erosion and need to remain in place). Teach children to be environmentally conscious–every bit of trash dumped on the road or in the storm drains ultimately washes into the pond, and one of your neighbors will have the very time-consuming task of fishing it out.

Of course, what applies to the pond applies equally to other parts of the community: no one enjoys having their yards or sidewalk areas fouled by dogs, or having children racing uninvited through their yard, using their driveway as a bicycle or skateboard ramp, or damaging their trees and landscaping. Please be considerate of your neighbors, and teach your children the same.