Peekskill Council Trashes Growing Litter in Downtown
The Peekskill Common Council is looking to clean up the downtown in the new year.
Councilwoman Vivian McKenzie, who has owned Kathleen’s Tea Room on Main Street since 2010, said during a work session last week litter has become a growing problem in the city, giving a black eye to the many positive improvements taking place.
“We have a problem. Every street the litter is really bad,” McKenzie said. “It’s not one particular place. It’s the entire downtown. It’s in the streets. It’s in front of empty lots. It’s everywhere. We really need to do some grooming.”
Councilwoman Drew Claxton agreed, mentioning bus stops in the city also seemed to be targets for trash. She noted business owners were responsible for cleaning sidewalks outside their storefronts.
“We want to encourage more people to live downtown,” she said.
Director of City Services Brent VanZandt said city sanitation workers pick up garbage daily in the downtown, which often is household trash that is wrongly placed in cans on street corners.
While Acting City Manager Richard Leins said a letter would be sent to commercial building owners reminding them of their responsibilities, he emphasized enforcement was difficult without catching the violators in the act.
“This is a situation not unique to Peekskill,” Leins said. “We don’t have alleys to put garbage in the back (of businesses).”
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