After the barbecues were over and all the guests went home, residents of New Cassel were left with a messy reminder of their Memorial Day weekend festivities.

Electro Waste Services, the company responsible for collecting New Cassel's garbage on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, buried the community under a whole week's worth of garbage. The pickup came late Friday for most residents, after the Town of North Hempstead mobilized and called in the Highway Department, the Solid Waste Department, and the Public Works Department to help resolve the problem. Over 60 tons of trash were collected, according to Commissioner of Public Works Matthew Miner.

Miner said that Electro Waste Services "appear to be having problems to the extent of which we are still trying to determine." When contacted by The Westbury Times early Friday morning, a spokesperson from Electro who called himself Joseph insisted that all the garbage had been collected on Wednesday, and said that his superiors were unavailable to comment on the situation.

Although Manhasset also experienced delays in their garbage collection, residents of New Cassel said that their problems were compounded by the numerous illegal multiple dwellings in the area. "If you want to see where the illegal multiple dwellings are, just take a look at the trash at the curb," said Mildred Little. "Manhasset residents may have one or two bags of garbage," said Margaret Miller-Scott, "but there are seven and eight bags of garbage in front of many of the homes in New Cassel because of illegal multiple dwellings."

Sean Brown, assistant commissioner of public safety for the Town of North Hempstead, commiserated with residents and reminded them that the town was doing its best to solve the problem of illegal multiple dwellings. "We are very aware of the problem, but this is not something that is going to go away over night," he said. "We take landlords to court every week. We have a prosecutor who is not sympathetic to slumlords at all. He is very aggressive toward that type of activities, but it is never enough when you talk to residents, and rightfully so, because they live there."

"I am outraged that the garbage hasn't been picked up," he continued.