Town mulls ways to deal with littering problem

After complaints, Town Board members have agreed to post “No Littering” signs on Glenerie Boulevard.

TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » Town Board members have agreed to post “No Littering” signs on Glenerie Boulevard after getting complaints from property owners that people are using the road a dumping zone.

Authorization to provide notification was given during a meeting last week, with Supervisor James Quigley saying the recommendation includes having police increase patrols in the area.

“We’ve been approached by numerous town residents who live on Glenerie Boulevard about the littering issues,” he said.

An email from the Glenerie Lake Park Improvement Association noted that the problem extends for about a half mile north from the intersection with Northern Boulevard.

Among suggestions was reviewing littering laws to determine if a stronger deterrent is needed.

“We need to go over our fines for littering in the town and bring them up to date and find a way that we can enforce them a little better,” Councilman Rocco Secreto said.

Officials noted there has been an effort to clean up the road but people were apparently taking advantage of the remote location for clandestine dumping runs.

“I took a ride out Glenerie ... and a lot of the garbage was picked up,” Secreto said. “But even overnight people were throwing bags of garbage out on the road (including) furniture. It’s just an easy way of getting rid of something without having to pay.”

Secreto said there were similar problems in other parts of the town, including East Kingston.

“I’m all for putting the signs up,” he said. “Any place that’s vacant, garbage ends up (such as) Black’s Road on (state Route) 32. We need to look at this littering problem, it’s getting out of hand now.”

Councilman Eric Kitchen suggested that the town could go through bags of garbage to determine if there were items that could use for identification.

“A lot of times people will be letters and ... junk mail in there,” he said.