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POMPTON LAKES - Protests lodged about 'trashed' downtown
PEQUANNOCK - Several residents who attended the April 23 Borough Council meeting talked about a cleaner downtown.
Firefighter and Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Al Evangelista stood up as a concerned resident during the public portion of the meeting and talked about the trash found along Wanaque Avenue.
“I urge you to walk the business district from the A&P to down to the library and you won’t believe the disgust and the debris and the litter that is not only on the curb line but on the sidewalk,” said Evangelista.
Evangelista said graffiti is being drawn on the buildings and many of the street signs need repair.
The street signs are faded and can hardly be read and some are hanging on one bolt. Evangelista said Passaic County should come in to repair them before they become projectiles.
“Call the county and tell them to bolt their signs up. It is a hazard, it is flopping in the wind, and it could be a projectile if the other bolt breaks,” said Evangelista.
Wanaque Avenue resident Jennifer McCuster said she looks out of her window and sees the trash and people littering every day.
“Signs are up about cigarettes and littering and I see people doing it right in front of our law enforcement,” McCuster.
McCuster said if the borough has a loitering ordinance it should start to enforce it.
Business Improvement District (BID) Chairman John Soojian agreed that Wanaque Avenue is a disgrace, but his group has made plans to help improve it.
“We determined that the BID would spend some money to have somebody go through the town and clean it up. I spoke with some local landscapers and a street sweeper and we are going to get some input from them,” said Soojian.
Soojian also said the council should create an ordinance that requires business and property owners to maintain their sites.
“There is no reason why business owners and property owners should not be sweeping in front of their property,” said Soojian.
Resident Debbie Stankiewicz said the borough should not have to create an ordinance to make someone clean up his or her property.
“If garbage is in front my house, I go and pick it up. I don’t come to the town and say there is garbage in front of my house,” said Stankiewicz.
Last summer Scouts planted flowers around the trees on Wanaque Avenue and a few months later they died.
Stankiewicz also said there was no reason why they could not have watered the plants.
Department of Public Works Superintendent Ben Steltzer later said the county routinely cleans Wanaque Avenue with the street sweeper but it is the business and property owners that need to do more.
“Many of the shop owners just don’t care. They put their stuff out and let it blow around,” said Steltzer.
The county Sheriff’s Labor Assistance Program has cleaned along the avenue but within a few days their efforts had faded, Steltzer explained.
“We do the best we can and the bottom line is we need the help from the store owners,” said Steltzer.
| Comments (1) |
On May 10, 2008 Barbara said:
I grew up in Packanack Lake and went to elementary and junior high in Wayne, N.J. We were bused to Pompton Lakes High School to start our sophmore year. I graduated in 1947 along with Howard Ball and have many fond memories of Pompton Lakes. Of late I have heard that Pompton has had radical changes in the businesses along Wanaque Ave. It seems that imigrants whether legal or illegal do not obey our rules or laws nor do they care to. Upon reading the article in the Trends on the trashy Wanaque Ave., I felt I had to comment on what a lovely town Pompton once was. There was the Pompton Bank, Risdens Tea Room, Pauls Jewlery, Bakery, Gelmen's, Feinblooms, the drugstore on the corner of Colfax Ave, Carmens Luncheonette, Acme, A&P, Fruits an Veggie Store, Pompton Diner and the Colonial Theater. On down further was Pattersons store, the firehouse, Hundtermarks Ins. Agcy etc. How nice it was to shop there or eat in town on high school lunch hour. I remember Officer Pat Ball, Howard's uncle. It amazes me how a town can go downhill so fast and nothing is done about it.. I live in Texas outside of Houston and see the same thing happening here although we have far more illegals than y'all. We do not know the U.S.A. as it used to be. It is now USA, Upper South America. |
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