Recently, several cars in our sub parked in driveways were broken into. Typically, the thieves are looking for cell phones, lap tops or GPS devices. Please make sure you bring these devices in at night. You can help potentially avoid this from happening if you keep your external garage and porch lights on. Light is a big deterrence to would be thieves. In the past, as has been mentioned in the Presidents corner in the past, our streets are very dark at night as most of our homeowners do not keep external lights on. Those that turn their lights on, it makes a big difference as you walk through our sub at nighttime or in the early morning.
I ask that every home review their individual home lighting situation and consider keeping a light on from dusk to dawn. Even better is to install a timer so that technology works for you. If you are running late from work or out of town, your home continues to be well lit, regardless of whether you are home. Use of compact fluorescent light bulbs also cut down on your cost of lighting. I’ve been using them for my outside lighting for the past several years.
For about five cents a day, every home could help make Strathmore a safer place to live.
Changes to Farmington Hills Recycling
The City of Farmington Hills has expanded its curbside recycling guidelines, allowing residents to put additional items in their green curbside bins. In cooperation with the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC), the City’s recycling guidelines were updated as of January 2012. The Material Recovery Facility was recently upgraded and converted to a single-stream system. The new system, where materials can be mixed together at the curb and sorted at the facility, allows for increased recycling volume and collection efficiencies. These new processing capacities have created the ability to increase the amount of acceptable items. Items accepted in the recycling bins include:
• All narrow-neck and wide-mouth plastic bottles and containers numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 or 7, now including yogurt containers and strawberry baskets. (#3 plastics are infrequently used and are not accepted). Please note: All caps and labels may now be left on.
• Bulky #2 plastics, now including cat litter buckets, large plastic pails, and molded kids’ furniture
• Garden plastics, now including all pots and trays (remove all dirt and plant matter)
• Paper drink cartons, now including plastic-coated milk and juice cartons in addition to juice boxes
• All colors of glass bottles and jars
• Household metals, including small scrap metal items
• Junk mail, office paper, and phonebooks
• Cardboard and boxboard, including pizza boxes
• Newspapers, magazines, and catalogs
Plastic bags and ceramics are no longer accepted in the green curbside bins, but several local grocery store chains now accept plastic bags for recycling. In addition to the items accepted at the curbside, the Southfield RRRASOC Drop-Off location also accepts used consumer electronics, or e-waste, such as computers, TVs, DVD players, microwave ovens, and small household appliances.
