Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton City of Warren residents who utilize the city’s yard waste composting service will now take materials to the city’s Harmar St. treatment plant. The service was temporarily moved to the Department of Public Works garage while the treatment plant was replaced.

Composting in the City of Warren has moved back to the wastewater treatment plant on Warren’s south side.

Department of Public Works Director Mike Holtz said that the city has accepted brush at the Harmar St. treatment plant for many years but relocated the service to the DPW garage at the base of Elm St. while the treatment plant was replaced.

With the service moved back to Harmar St., Holtz called the new arrangement “much more convenient than before.” Sticks and branches are to be deposited to the right side of the enclosure while yard refuse is to be put in a dumpster on the left.

The site is opened 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday excluding holidays as well as 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and is restricted to city residents only.

Holtz said that the city has purchased land off of Hemlock Road to serve as a compost site.

“That site is not open to the public,” Holtz said, calling it “too hard to manage.” He called the Harmar St. drop off “much more convenient than the Hemlock property was going to be.” The former site utilized by the city, and open to the public, was located up Cobham Park Road and closed effective January 31, 2016.

Holtz said that the “city has struggled as residents have” since that site closed and been in discussions with the state Department of Environmental Protection over the last year regarding sites that meet the criteria.

He said the city will be making sure that the “material is composted correctly,” including being placed into windrows and turned over. The site will also be utilized for the city’s fall leaf pick up initiative.