[RP TownTalk] Litter Pickup

Tue Aug 27 00:12:38 UTC 2013

I can speak about the comparison of our town doing the trash and outsourcing since I have lived here since 1970.  Yes it is absolutely true that the trash was picked up and the streets were in better condition when we did it ourselves.  Our trash people were great at their job and cared about the community.  Bates just picks up the trash and if they drop some, so what. They don't care.  Not only did our trash staff do a good job in picking up the trash several times a week, but they also swept the streets from time to time and kept the community in good condition.  They also watered the plants and picked up around the small pocket parks, trimmed the trees, and did loads of work which just isn't done now.  And the they did it with a smile and wave in a friendly way.  It was small town Americana!  What a difference today.  I have taken it upon myself to put a sign on my street to remind people to pick up after themselves and found that it didn't help much.  some people just threw trash by my sign.  I ended up picking it up.  What's the solution?  Don't know, but we do have a public works director and employees who do know how to make this work, so let's look to them to help us find a solution.  I think there is a fine for littering and maybe we should enforce the law?  Years ago, when I operated the Riverdale Bookshop near the railroad. there was a stop sign with tons of trash around.  We plowed up the space, planted flowers around the stop sign, put in mulch  and low and behold, people no longer put trash in there!  I think its called the "
broken window theory"  If we have a mess it creates more of a mess.  If we clean it up then people take pride in it and keep it clean.  The Stop sign garden proved that to me.  If we look at the little garden on East West Highway and 49th in the middle, someone planted plants there to beautify it, but no one takes care of it.  No weeding, no mulch.  It looks horrible.  If we make all these gardens look good, keep our streets looking good, people will tend to keep it looking good too.  Also if anyone comes to the neighborhood and throws trash, remind them if you are outside that we don't do that around here.  It takes a community and we all need to do our part

Audrey Bragg, Broker
Gerrety & Bragg Real Estate, Inc.
301-277-1111 office
301-351-4222 cell

-----Original Message-----
From: Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>
To: Dotsie <rowdee at gmail.com>
Cc: towntalk <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
Sent: Mon, Aug 26, 2013 5:51 pm
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Litter Pickup

Dotsie, first of all many thanks to you, and Dell, and anyone else who takes the time to pick up litter on our streets!  You raise some interesting points in your post.  I'm wondering if you, or any other TownTalkers who have a better memory than I do, can say whether the post-trash pickup littering is worse now, with Bates, than it was when the town ran its own trash collection?  I certainly do notice that there is, sometimes, some litter left in our block after trash pickup, but whether it's worse now than it used to be or not, I honestly cannot say.

There is a phenomenon that has been observed in the US where municipalities and school districts are now, in some cases, "insourcing" their service contracts - this is a reversal of "outsourcing", which is what Riverdale Park did when we moved the job of trash collection to a private contractor.  In the cases where "insourcing" has taken place the reasons most often cited are a) expected cost savings didn't materialize and b) difficulty in administering the contract and maintaining quality standards.  In these cases, cities, towns and school districts found that doing it themselves proved to be either less costly or of higher standards, or both.

I'd be curious to know if people think the current quality of our trash service under Bates is any worse, better or more-or-less the same as it was when our Public Works Dept provided the service directly?

On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 5:26 PM, Dotsie <rowdee at gmail.com> wrote:

I, too, just want to respond to the litter issue, not the Dept of Corrections. 

I pick up litter all the time when I'm walking the dog and it astounds me what people just seem to drop. There is little that those of us who are responsible can do about the irresponsible, however, except provide an example.

What I have trouble with is the contribution that Bates makes to the litter issue. I have seen trash fall out of the cans as they are putting it in their truck and they don't take the time to deal with it as it lays in the street.  

Last week, I came home to trash and garbage sitting next to my empty trash can. I guess a bag broke when Bates was picking up my trash, but I find it irresponsible of them not to clean it up. There were ants all over the sizable pile by the time I got home and picked it up. It would not have been a big deal if they had just scooped it up (they do wear gloves) at the time.  

Anyway, for those of us who care about our neighborhood and environment, let's just keep doing what we can do personally. Thanks to those that do. 

Dotsie

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 2:12 PM, tazimax <tazimax at verizon.net> wrote:

I agree wholeheartedly about the litter issue. I live behind the McDonalds on rt. 1 and between the alley between us and the parking lots at Suntrust and the Jamal building, I end up with trash piled against my fence, in my yard and on the street. Nobody cleans the alley unless I mention it to McDonald's (when they built it they agreed to keep it clean). Suntrust  barely ever cleans up. Jamals building isn't too bad about cleaning up during the week,  but the weekend gets bad. Food trash leads to rats and none of us want that. Its a shame that even with businesses, no one cares anymore.
Carol DePrato-Miller

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Beth Judy <bethjudy4 at gmail.com> 
Date: 08/20/2013  9:33 AM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: Sue Collins <wheadle at yahoo.com> 

Cc: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Litter Pickup 

HI,
My posting is a little off topic - I don't want to comment on whether or not the Dept of Corrections should pick up the litter in Riverdale.

I do, however want to comment on litter in Riverdale Park. When I walk my dog, I see a lot of litter around town. Even litter right next to the trash cans. I'm really grateful to Del for doing his part to pick up.  I've joined in too and clean up the public spaces. I'm not comfortable walking into someones yard.

Any ideas on how we can encourage our citizens to keep Riverdale Park beautiful and litter-free? I know some of the litter is generated from pass through traffic.And the streets seem especially littered after trash/recyling day - some of the paper doesn't make it into the truck.

Thanks,
Beth
Sheridan Street

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 7:58 AM, Sue Collins <wheadle at yahoo.com> wrote:

Possibly not; however, even though I don't have children myself, I'd prefer not to take the chance. Anyhow, if someone hasn't been paying their traffic fines or they're guilty of "failure to appear," that would indicate to me that while they might not be in the same category as an ax murderer, they're still not exactly candidates for "citizen of the year."  JMO, of course.  

From: Lou King <lking at knob.com>
To: 
Cc: "towntalk at riverdale-park.org" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org> 
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Litter Pickup

No James I did not miss, what I guessed was your point. I do strongly 
disagree with the perceived danger.

In this day and age, if I understand correctly, work details like litter 
pickup are a coveted perk, as apposed to the "39 links of chain around 
my leg" era of the old south where the work gang was a part of the 
definition of "years at hard labor." I remember in the '60s when 
traveling, seeing chain gangs with guards holding shotguns and rifles. 
That was a different thing.

We have evolved.  Volunteering for such "outside" work details by 
selected, non-violent, offenders counts as good behavior and may shorten 
their sentence, thus it is a desired assignment, not life threatening. 
To say nothing the emotional lift from not being "inside."

Although I agree the though process of someone being held by the 
Department of Corrections may be questioned, do you really think someone 
with a sentence counted in days in a County facility, for not paying 
traffic fines or "failure to appear" would risk years in a State or 
Federal facility by even talking to a child?

Lou

O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop HTML mail - www.asciiribbon.org

James D. Holmes wrote, On 8/17/2013 12:08 PM:
> Lou
>
> You are missing the point.
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