Spring cleanup time in Riverhead: Volunteers needed as Town Board pledges stepped-up enforcement and public awareness campaign

Riverhead’s town-wide spring cleanup is set for Sunday morning, April 28 and the town’s litter committee is asking for volunteers willing to spend a couple of hours to help with the effort.

Volunteers will meet at Town Hall, 4 West Second Street, on the morning of the cleanup to register and pick up supplies. Individual volunteers and teams can also register online by emailing the committee chairperson, Deborah Wetzel. 

Volunteers spread out across town to pick up litter along public roads and sidewalks, Wetzel said. The cleanup takes place from 9 to 11 a.m.

Wetzel and committee members Jim Meinecke and Joanne Rizzo met with the Town Board at its work session last week, invited by Council Member Joann Waski, who is the board’s liaison to the committee. 

“They have an exciting event coming up and I wanted to give them the opportunity to discuss it,” Waski said.

Committee members also had other matters on their minds related to litter in the town, the town’s overall appearance and the need to step up beautification efforts. 

Wetzel pressed upon board members the continuing need to enforce litter laws that require private property owners to keep their premises clean and free of litter and trash. Many commercial property owners don’t abide by the law and the town doesn’t enforce it, Wetzel said. 

“If you could provide us a list of commercial properties, we will, in conjunction with the town attorney’s office we will send a letter to those property owners informing them that it’s their responsibility to clean up or face violations, we will generate a letter out and put them on notice that they have to clean up or they will be in violation,” Supervisor Tim Hubbard said.

“We’ve been down that road before,” Wetzel told him. 

“We will do it again,” Hubbard replied.

Wetzel said the matters go to the code enforcement division. “And then code enforcement says ‘we’re too busy with housing.’ And then it —”

“We will make time for code enforcement to address this. That’s unacceptable,” Hubbard interrupted. When Wetzel questioned how, since the town has been unable to do it in the past, the supervisor said. “It’s very simple. We will have them do it. It will be part of their daily operations to go out and do that.”

Committee members have gone to over 100 businesses in town since last summer to advise them of the law’s requirements and ask them to comply, Wetzel said.  It basically has had no effect, she said.

“Everybody on my committees is super-devoted, hardworking, we’re all trying to make a difference in our town and we really need more support from the town and we’re not getting what we need to to actually keep our town cleaner,” Wetzel said. “My mom lives in Cutchogue. I drive through there, it’s not like our town.”

Litter begets litter, she said. “When people see garbage, they think it’s OK to let someone else pick it up,” Wetzel said.

Council Member Ken Rothwell said the Town Board unanimously supports the new supervisor who has already made efforts to expand code enforcement. 

Wetzel said the town has an image problem because of litter and garbage. She and Meineke spoke of efforts undertaken by neighboring towns to clean up and beautify their communities. 

“Why can’t our town do the same thing as all of these other neighboring towns?  If they were able to find the resources and they were able to put it together and their towns look great,” Wetzel said.

Meineke said other towns have “adopt-a-street” programs coordinated by town staff. Babylon, he said, partners with the sheriff’s office to have inmates pick up litter. There are other ideas, too, but Riverhead Town needs to have a “go-to person” in town government to work on the issue.

The town needs to undertake an anti-litter public information effort, Wetzel said. 

Hubbard said the town will be undertaking a public relations campaign to boost the town’s image and community beautification efforts will be part of that. 

In Riverhead, the litter committee has even had a hard time getting the bags of litter collected by volunteers during cleanup events picked up by the town, Wetzel said. Council Member Bob Kern confirmed that. In the past he has borrowed a pickup truck from the highway department and picked up the bags himself, he said.

Waski said she has arranged with the buildings and grounds division to pick up the bags at designated drop off points on Monday, April 29, the morning after the cleanup.

Interested residents can follow the litter committee’s Facebook page where it posts information about cleanup events and more.