The Willow Glen Resident Guard hired to curb dumping at WG Salvation Army trailer By Mary Spicuzza After a storm of protests this summer about a deluge of donations--and illegal dumping--piling up at a Salvation Army trailer at the corner of Lincoln and Pascoe avenues, a calm has settled in the surrounding Willow Glen neighborhood. Residents say they suffered through several months of problems with after-hours donations, illegal garbage dumping and late-night pilfering of goods outside the Salvation Army's donation trailer. Salvation Army Maj. Jack Phillips attributed the problem to irresponsible citizens who did the dumping, and to a lack of cooperation from neighbors and police. At one point landowners Anne and Doug Scolari removed the trailer in response to complaints, but the trash and donations just kept piling up. After seeking solutions to the problem with San Jose Code Enforcement Inspector Cindy Gil-Blanco, the landowners and the Salvation Army decided to return the trailer--with an after-hours security guard, paid for by the Scolaris. Despite neighborhood concern over the trailer's return, everyone seems pleased with the results. "No complaints whatsoever," resident Helen Solinski says. Solinski, who became involved in looking for solutions to the dumping problem, is now an active member of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. She says that, to her knowledge, neighbors in the surrounding community are pleased with the way the site is being maintained. The Scolaris, who own the land leased by the Salvation Army, also say the security guard solution seems to be working. "We're policing it until midnight, and we're preventing local residents from dumping there. I guess that's the only way to do it...to keep a constant vigil on it," Doug Scolari sighs. "But everything is going well, and we hope we have no more problems there." Yet Solinski remains concerned that the root of the dumping problem still exists. Many people, she says, simply don't know what to do with large items such as old furniture, chemicals and other difficult-to-dispose-of goods. "I want to pursue an annual garbage pick-up day in San Jose similar to the program offered in Santa Clara," Solinski says, referring to that city's once-a-year curbside service for disposing of large items. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, October 14, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.