'Sheer Abuse' Of Town Beaches As Litter Piles Up Sparks Crackdown: Supervisor

SOUTHOLD, NY — The sight is familiar after summer weekends in Southold: Trash cans overflowing at local beaches and road ends, garbage spilling out onto the sand.

And the cost of cleanup to Southold Town is proving too high, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said at Tuesday's town board work session —with trash piled high around cans at dozens of beaches and road ends around town.

"It's almost insurmountable," Russell said.

The supervisor asked Jeff Standish, Southold Town's director of public works, to compile photographs of what the town is dealing with — and the images painted an unflattering picture.

In one photo, Russell said he saw a cooler and broken beach chairs — and said the problem is the "sheer abuse" of the beaches by people carelessly dumping their trash.

"For the life of me, I cannot figure out how some self-entitled prima donna thinks it's the taxpayer's job to throw out his cooler, his umbrella — his broken beach chairs," Russell said.

Councilman Jim Dinizio said he goes to 67 Steps in Greenport every day and, while he's found things such as a set of women's and men's clothing, or remains of s'mores, on the whole, he said the "beaches aren't that bad, it's the barrels and road endings."

Russell disagreed. "The beaches are pretty bad, too, but some of that is the result of crows and sea gulls getting into this trash and spreading it," he said.

The bottom line, the supervisor said, is that individuals should take their trash home, especially larger items such as beach chairs.

"I don't know how or why we got into the garbage business but it's not the taxpayer's job to pay for the disposal of broken beach chairs," Russell said. He added that people should take that type of garbage home for disposal.

Standish also outlined the cost to the town of not only picking up the trash, but in man hours, fuel for the garbage truck, and trash cans. Not including traffic control officers and police, the amount equalled $284,328 in 2016, with a predicted cost of $314,610 for 2017.

In addition, Russell said, there are some remote, underused locations — in Orient, for example — where trash cans are sited in places where there isn't even a beach, and where it takes time and fuel for town employees to drive out and empty the cans.

The supervisor suggested maybe those cans in remote locations be removed or perhaps, the town develop alternative, less costly solutions, such as hiring a carting company to empty those cans, since the companies probably have customers in those locations, anyway.

"We really have to do something. When this season’s over we need to come up with long term plan," Russell said.

The first step, he said, is to evaluate how many barrels exist around town and where they are located.

The town board discussed how to catch offenders leaving egregious piles of trash; Dinizio said cameras might be the solution and Justice Louisa Evans said a reward might be considered.

Russell said a hefty fine could be weighed for those dumping their trash in the cans, perhaps $1,000.

The supervisor emphasized that the plan is not to remove garbage cans from the beach altogether — but, instead, to address remote locations that "are becoming community landfills."

He added, "Nobody on the town board is proposing to get rid of all garbage cans. It's just a problem of, 'How do we deal with this?' Why should the taxpayers have to pay to throw out someone's broken beach chair?"

Councilwoman Jill Doherty said it comes down to enforcement, while Evans said new signs might be created. Doherty said for the most part, the signs are ignored.

Russell said finding a solution is critical.

"We need to reduce our role in the garbage business," Russell said. "There are companies that do that for a living — and Southold Town shouldn't be one of them."

Patch courtesy photo.