The Port Washington Business Improvement District will vote on whether to purchase garbage cans for Main Street on April 5, three weeks after the Town of North Hempstead removed its cans at the request of the Port Washington Garbage District.
Port BID Executive Director Mariann Dalimonte confirmed that the item is on the April 5 meeting agenda.
A spokesperson for the Town of North Hempstead said they expect the BID to approve the purchase.
If approved, the Port Washington Garbage District will resume garbage removal when the new cans are installed, the spokesperson said.
The garbage district’s commissioners could not be reached for comment.
The garbage district approved a resolution in December to stop emptying the cans and suggested they be removed to help combat the community’s litter problem, according to a letter from the district to the town.
About 50 garbage cans were removed.
Dalimonte said she does not know how many garbage cans will be purchased if the BID votes to buy them.
In a letter sent to the town on Dec. 29, the district’s three commissioners said eliminating the garbage collection six times a week from the town-owned cans “will reduce tipping fees charged to the district.”
The decision to remove the cans was made to force business owners along Main Street to stop throwing personal garbage in them, the commissioners said in the letter.
The district was not contractually obligated to remove the garbage but did so out of courtesy to the town, the commissioners said in the letter.
When residents inquired about the missing cans, the district said in an email to residents that the town “allowed them to fall into disrepair making them unsightly and, in some cases, unusable.”
“The town accepted no responsibility for them,” the email said. “The town has the workforce and owns garbage trucks. Our thought was that they would be able to empty them as often as needed and provide oversight of the mentioned problems and work directly with their own code enforcement.”
After the cans were removed, the town tapped a notice to the front of stores on Main Street, saying “No person shall throw, deposit or distribute litter in or upon any street, sidewalk, vehicle or other public place within the town except in public receptacles or in authorized private receptacles for collection.”
The garbage district has provided the town with pictures and addresses of locations littering on Main Street, the commissioners said.
“The sidewalks and curb areas have been cleaner than they have been in a very long time,” the commissioners said. “Not perfect, but cleaner.”
Paul Oleksiw, one of the garbage district’s three commissioners, is also the president of the Port BID.
