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Fair Big Sweep cleans the streets in Baldwin
Residents and town sanitation district work together to beautify the community
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other residents of Baldwin volunteered to clean up their community during this year’s Big Sweep, hosted by Town of Hempstead’s Sanitary District 2 on May 21. Their goal was to make the hamlet clean and welcoming for residents and visitors.
“We get all the kids from the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” said Leroy Roberts, the chairman of the board of commissioners for the town’s five special sanitation districts. “We supply them with rakes, garbage bags and anything else they need.”
District 2 has held the Big Sweep annually for approximately 20 years. Doug Wiedmann, secretary to the board, said that district residents pride themselves on their willingness to volunteer and do their part. “They have a lot of community spirit,” Wiedmann said. “They care enough about their community to spend a couple of minutes or hours of their time to come out and volunteer.”
He added that some 60 to 70 people volunteered for this year’s Big Sweep, with everyone from toddlers to senior citizens grabbing a rake or a broom and picking up trash. The biggest cleanup job that volunteers dealt with was in Roosevelt, where they found more than 100 car tires lying in a vacant space. It took volunteers and District 2 employees about an hour to dispose of the tires, Roberts said.
Participants also used lawn trimmers to cut weeds growing in sidewalk creases.
The effort is one of the ways the sanitary district teaches children to keep their neighborhoods tidy. “We [lecture] to kids in school about recycling,” Roberts said. “We always talk to kids about keeping the streets clean. We have to get to the kids first before the adults.”
As for reducing the amount of waste in the community, Wiedmann provided a few useful tips. “People should call 911 if they see people littering,” he said. “They can also call sanitation or call the Town of Hempstead and we will get it cleaned up.”
County Legislator Laura Curran, who co-sponsored the event, explained that along with the Boy and Girl Scouts, members of Operation SPLASH (Stop Polluting, Littering and Save Harbors) have been instrumental in helping maintain parkland and waterways in Baldwin and the surrounding area in various cleanup efforts. Last Saturday, she and other community members picked up trash and debris in Milburn Lake Park.
“As part of the Milburn cleanup, we filled bags full of trash hidden in the reeds around the water just north of Atlantic Avenue,” Curran said. “Every bottle, can and wrapper we picked up now will not end up in our waterways or out in the ocean.”
She explained how littering can lead to serious environmental repercussions. “I tell people that in the Pacific Ocean, there’s a floating island of trash twice the size of Texas,” she said. “Every time you litter, you’re adding to that island of trash, or a similar one floating in another ocean. That’s because every time it rains, trash runs into the storm drains, out to the bays and then out into the ocean. Not only is littering rude, selfish and unattractive, you are killing marine life.”
The sanitation district holds other events each year, including two food drives, Document Shredding Day and Operation Shed the Meds. Roberts explained that two shredding trucks are used for the shredding of any unwanted documents, while Shed the Meds gives residents the opportunity to dispose of prescription drugs that are either expired or unused.
Roberts said he appreciates the fact that these programs have all started within the community. “It’s all community-based,” he said.
