WEST ORANGE, NJ — Residents of Watchung Avenue are lambasting the township for not providing basic street services on a regular basis during the past year, which residents say has made the area look increasingly derelict.
Mike Taylor and Walter McCoy said West Orange’s street sweepers have often gone weeks at a time without cleaning their street, causing trash to accumulate in the road. The situation got so bad earlier this month that Taylor recorded a video of himself collecting some of the accumulated garbage and throwing it on the Town Hall lawn in protest.
A crew of workers cleaned up the street the next day, and Taylor said the street sweeper has been coming down Watchung every Monday and Friday as scheduled since then. Taylor received a ticket for littering at Town Hall, but he said he does not mind paying the fine if the upkeep continues. What upsets him is the fact that he had to stage a demonstration in the first place to get results.
“All I want to do is go to work, come home, pay my taxes and go on with my life and play with my grandkids and stuff like that — I really don’t appreciate having to go through all this extra,” Taylor told the West Orange Chronicle in an Aug. 19 phone interview. “I’m just trying to (show the township) ‘You guys have to do your job.’”
McCoy agreed that Taylor should not have had to prove a point just to get services for which West Orange residents already pay a lot in taxes. He said West Orange should never have allowed Watchung Avenue to get as dirty as it did over the last few months, pointing out that people are more likely to throw trash on the ground if they see garbage already lying there. If he lived in a ghetto, he said the streets would look the same but at least he would be paying less in taxes.
In addition to the litter problem, McCoy said he could not get the township to fix the storm drain in front of his house, which was broken for nine months. He said it was finally repaired after Taylor posted his video, and the regular street cleanings that have also resulted from it have made Watchung Avenue look nice again. He said he just hopes that the street sweepers will continue to come down Watchung every Monday and Friday as required.
“I don’t like living in garbage,” McCoy told the Chronicle in an Aug. 19 phone interview. “(West Orange) is supposed to sweep it. If you sweep it, it will look decent. But you have to do it every week. You can’t be missing weeks.”
Watchung Avenue may have missed out on being cleaned due to the fact that West Orange currently has only one street sweeper, according to public works director Leonard Lepore. Lepore said that the township used to have two sweepers, but the second one broke and the administration decided against repairing it due to the cost. As a result, he said it is has been more difficult to clean every street.
“If we have one sweeper and we have many areas that need to get swept on a Friday or Monday during a certain period of time, sometimes we just haven’t been able to get to all of them,” Lepore told the Chronicle in an Aug. 22 phone interview.
Lepore said the township has made an effort in recent weeks to clean Watchung Avenue regularly. He said roads in high-traffic commercial areas tend to collect garbage more easily than a residential street, so the street sweepers always try to target roadways like Watchung weekly.
Additionally, Lepore said the township is currently exploring the possibility of outsourcing the service, which might be a more efficient use of equipment and personnel. And while Taylor questioned whether outside workers would care as much about thoroughness than a township employee, the public works director said that any contractor hired would be monitored for compliance.
In the meantime, Lepore said any Watchung resident who continues to experience problems should call him immediately. Though no street in town is ever ignored, he said the public works department has a vested interest in the Watchung Avenue area.
“That’s a neighborhood that’s important to public works because that’s where we’re located,” Lepore said.
Lepore added that he does not know why the storm drain in front of McCoy’s house was not repaired for so long, and said that was unacceptable.
Mayor Robert Parisi also stressed that Watchung Avenue is not being neglected. At the same time though, Parisi said the administration cannot be expected to pick up every single piece of garbage in West Orange. It is up to everyone to make sure that their neighborhoods are maintained, he said.
“When I see litter on my street, I pick it up,” Parisi told the Chronicle in an Aug. 18 phone interview. “I don’t call the town and complain. We all have a responsibility to keep our town clean, safe and a desirable community. It cannot always be government’s job to fix every problem.”
Taylor agreed that people should dispose of garbage if they find it on the ground. But he said it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to pick up the amount of trash that had accumulated on Watchung Avenue. And though the township may have only one sweeper, he said he wants the administration to know that is no excuse for not providing a service to which residents are entitled.
“If the machine’s broken, that doesn’t work for me,” Taylor said. “If I get fired for some reason and no longer get a paycheck at all, I can’t use the excuse that I can’t pay my taxes because I am broke. Stop giving the taxpayers excuses. Just get the job done. Do what you’re supposed to do.”
Photos Courtesy of Mike Taylor
Consistent cleanup demanded on Watchung Avenue added by Sean Quinn on
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