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Don Pepe, Murrysville's chief administrator, said the matter would be on the council's agenda next week but that the recycling proposal does not address the issue of open burning. That was expected after Pepe reported to council on Sept. 1 about discussions he and Solicitor George Kotjarapoglus had with officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection in trying to resolve the situation.

"What I think we are going to do is split off the leaf recycling program from the open burning policy," Pepe said at that time.

The municipality's burning policy, which allows residents to burn yard waste such as leaves, conflicts with DEP regulations that prohibit such burning because it adds pollutants to the environment. Because of that conflict, the state has withheld $55,000 in performance grants Murrysville is due because of its participation in the recycling program.

That has caused some council members to do a slow burn because, they say, the state Legislature prohibited DEP from taking such an action.

Pepe said the open burning controversy with DEP remains unresolved. He said even if the recycling program is adopted, the grant money will not be released until the conflict is resolved.

Meanwhile, the leaf recycling proposal on Wednesday's agenda will be a collection program conducted through the municipality's garbage hauler, Greenridge Waste.

Pepe said the program's annual cost to residents in the first year will be $1.94 for senior citizens and $2.14 for other residents; $1.99 for seniors and $2.20 for other residents in the second year; and, in the third year, $2.05 for seniors and $2.26 for other residents. Also, a related cost is for the purchase of biodegradable paper bags. The 30-gallon bags, which hold up to 50 pounds of leaves each, are available at several local stores and, according to figures compiled when the program was first proposed last year, they range in cost from 40 to 56 cents per bag, with five bags per package.

"This kind of program is in place in many, many communities and it works very well," Pepe said. "This is the simplest, cheapest, most efficient and easiest way of handling it we could find."

He said he would not speculate whether council will approve the program. If the collection program is not approved, he said residents could elect simply to let the leaves lie where they fall. Pepe said the municipality will not compost leaves and Greenridge will haul the leaves to a site elsewhere.

Meanwhile, he said Kotjarapoglus will continue discussions with DEP officials on reaching some kind of agreement regarding open burning.

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