Cleanup by committee: W.H. Chamber group targets hamlet's messes large and small

Karl Riesterer has a large binder filled with photos of storefronts, telephone poles, mailboxes, fences and vacant properties throughout West Hempstead that are, in one way or another, marred.

Some are littered with trash or covered in graffiti, others are plastered with illegal signs, and still others are hidden beneath overgrown weeds and shrubs. Whatever their ailment, they tarnish the otherwise charming hamlet.

Now Riesterer, a lifelong resident and owner of the 80-year-old Riesterer’s Bakery, is ready to take back his community — and he’s got help. Members of the West Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, of which Riesterer is president, have formed a beautification committee to address the problem and develop ways to combat it.

“It started about a year and a half ago,” Riesterer said. “We kept asking, ‘What can we do, what can we do?’ and we kept talking about it.” Chamber members, he went on to say, realized that no single person could take on the task of cleaning up the hamlet; the chamber would have to collaborate with other organizations and make the cleanup a community effort.

They reached out to West Hempstead Boy Scout Troop 240, art teachers at West Hempstead High School, the West Hempstead Community Support Association and the Nassau County Kiwanis, which works with high school Key Clubs and college Circle K groups. Representatives of each met at the bakery last week to discuss the committee’s objectives, available resources and potential starting points.

“It’s now a matter of getting it coordinated, and that’s why we had the meeting,” Riesterer said. “I think we got some things on the table and everybody got to meet each other … and as a group, as a force, now maybe we can get more done.”