Springtime cleanups and us
Spring has, as they say, “sprung,” and the springtime urge to purge our homes and garages of unwanted stuff seems to erupt. The city has set the spring bulk trash date, and people are looking to get out of the house and get things ready for the warmer days ahead.
One of the most common complaints we hear in the Voice office concerns blight, or the fact that some homeowners, business owners or apartment building operators do not keep up their properties. One need only look at the regular column, The Gripe Vine, to understand this. A significant percentage of the complaints fielded by Eleanore Turkington concerns this topic.
Longtime readers of these pages will think this is our annual admonition to clean things up, and they would be correct. Keeping the city clean, keeping the streets free of refuse, and our properties tidy is not the job of the city’s Public Works Department, every one of us must pitch in to help.
The DPW’s Parks Division does a very respectable job keeping city parks, ballfields and sitting areas sharp and clean. Already street sweeping details are out working to clean gutters, a sure sign spring is here.
That said, the DPW does not have the responsibility of keeping the areas in front of city businesses clean, only public property. Most businesses do an excellent job of keeping their properties presentable, some are excellent. There are some, however, that believe the city is responsible for the sidewalks in front of their businesses. Not so. Just as a homeowner has responsibility for the sidewalks in front of their domiciles, so do businesses.
Meanwhile, homeowners will be carting things out to the curb for the spring bulk trash pickup. This is a daunting task for carting companies. Sometimes the sheer amount of what needs to be collected a given street is mind-boggling. While most of it gets collected, many homeowners do not get the memo on what the crews will collect and what they will not.
Televisions, for example, are seen languishing on curbs for days, and sometimes weeks. TVs are not collected by crews, neither are computer screens and the like. These must be collected at businesses and sites that will take them. The Regional Water Authority for example will take various forms of rubbish, such as old paint and other hazardous materials. Same is true for the electronic rubbish. Because of what is inside the machines, they need a special collection site.
Each year televisions and other such rubbish is put out and each year this office gets a complaint the trash was not collected. When the callers are told the city announced it would not collect such trash, they are incredulous. The point is, find out what is collected and what is not.
Those homeowners that allow their properties to languish and get overgrown with grass and shrubs seem to be absentee landlords. The city has had this problem for more than three decades. Absentee landlords, again, take care of their properties, but there are some that forget to mow the grass and trim the bushes.
Finally, there are those residents, owners, and renters alike, who sometime believe their properties are good places to store old motor vehicles, or those that are in a bad state of repair. Meanwhile, there are those who decide that front lawns are good places to park their cars. This makes the entire neighborhood look bad. Cars are not meant to be parked on lawns. They are an eyesore and make a terrible statement to the other residents of the area.
Keeping West Haven clean is everyone’s task. As we get into the spring-cleaning time, remembering these few points will make the city brighter and more pleasant for all.