By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
Tribune Staff Writer

WESTERNPORT – Westernport Councilman Richard “Pete” Davis encouraged residents of the town to take advantage of the new recycling bin recently moved to the parking lot across from the American Legion.
Speaking at this week's meeting of the Mayor and Town Council, Davis said the bin will only be kept in place by Allegany County if it is actively used – and not abused by using it for regular trash.
“I'd appreciate it if everyone would use it so we can keep it,” he said.
The bin replaces one that had been located in the old Tri Towns Plaza. Because of its remote location in the abandoned shopping center, however, that bin was often used for regular trash. Someone even dumped roofing material it it, officials said.
Davis took the lead in working with the Allegany County recycling office to have a bin located in Westernport. The bin can be used for both aluminum and steel cans, and newspapers.
With the Tri-Towns site gone, the nearest recycling center was 6 miles up Route 36 in Lonaconing. Initial returns  indicate area residents are indeed taking advantage of the new drop-off site.
“Someone is really doing a good job recycling cans,” Davis said.
In other business at Monday night's meeting, the Mayor and Town Council approved the sale of three aging town-owned vehicles that had been declared surplus property and put up for bid, including a Dodge van that received a high bid $825; a 1978 Ford dump truck that sold for $726 and a 1979 GMC pickup that went for $452.
Also sold was an old paving machine that had long taken up space at a town garage. It went to the town of Piedmont for $600. Unlike the surplus vehicles, the paving machine did not have to be bid because the transaction involved another municipality, council members said.
All told, the sale brought in just over $2,600 for hard-pressed town coffers.
Also put up for bid, but not sold for lack of any offers, was a 30-year-old pickup that needed extensive repairs, and a retired green fire truck that has long been parked at the west end of the Tri-Towns Plaza. With no bids for either vehicle, the council voted to sell them for scrap.
Mayor Amel Morris also swore in Vincent Benson as a new police officer on the Westernport force. A recent graduate of the state police training academy, Benson brings to three the number of police officers in Westernport.
Finally, the mayor and council voted unanimously to approve the second and final readings of two ordinances, one to establish a burning ordinance and the other to extend the town's line of credit.
The burning ordinance, which has been debated on and off in the town for more than a year, establishes that a law enforcement officer will be designated by the mayor as the “control officer” for enforcing the law. While the ordinance requires a permit for fires that are designed to burn brush, construction debris or other items, outdoor cooking fires and campfires do not require a permit. Only items that originate on a property can be burned.
Cooking fires have no setback requirements, but the ordinance states that recreational fires or campfires cannot be located “within a dangerous distance from any neighboring habitable buildings.” The ordinance does not define what constitutes a “dangerous distance.”
The other ordinance approved Monday night extends the city's line of credit to $140,000. Finance Commissioner Darrell Stephen said the measure was required to help the town cover temporary cash-flow shortfalls when tax collections do not cover monthly bills.