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The dedication for the Eric P. and Peter E. Corwith Park was held on Friday afternoon on Mill Road in Water Mill. Peter Corwith’s son Eric, wife Karen and daughter Kimberly cut the ribbon on the dock.

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About a year ago, Grist for the Mill had named my wonderful neighbor, Maurice Wittenberg, the very first Water Mill Good Neighbor. He earned that award for his endless patrol of our street and the artery connecting it to the 
main road, Blank Lane, about a 1-mile stretch, picking up the detritus from the lives of others. I had commented on his seemingly Sisyphean task, in that one day he’d clean up and the next, 
the street would again be dotted with those creepy thin grocery bags and coffee cups.

He has disposed of other people’s trash at his own expense for years and without complaint because he took pride in his neighborhood, and as a retired chemist, it gave him something to do in between the sometimes thrice daily walks with his wife Harriet.

For those unfamiliar with the myth of Sisyphus, he was the one that had been condemned by the gods to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, a rock that pushed back because of its own weight. The gods, according to the myth, had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. It is tragic, noted philosopher Albert Camus, because the hero is conscious of the 
futility of his efforts.

And so now, Mr. Wittenberg is hanging up his litter stick and allowing the rock to fall to the bottom of the hill. He recently sent a letter to the highway department informing them that he 
is resigning from the Blank Lane “Adopt-a-Road” program.

In a note to Grist, Mr. Wittenberg said the task was really getting him down... “I would get the roads nice and clean, and by the next day they would be 
filthy again.”

Grist asked him what he thought was the biggest contributor to the trash problem. After a few years of doing this, I’d say he qualifies as an expert 
on the subject. Mr. Wittenberg had 
this to say:

“The most annoying trash is beer and soda cans and various plastic and glass bottles. I would guess that they are thrown out of cars and trucks. I found them annoying because their presence was obviously no accident—they were often thrown under some bushes and were hard to reach—and also 
because I felt obligated to put them in for recycling. However, they were often too dirty to recycle without washing them (which I didn’t want to bother with), and the bottles often were thrown away with the caps on and some of the liquid still in them. Also thrown out of vehicles were various bags and containers from McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, etc. Then there were candy wrappers, cigarette boxes (and butts, of course), also probably thrown from vehicles. I used to blame the garbage trucks for a lot of the litter, and some still may come from them, but there seems to be an improvement lately. This might account for plastic 
grocery bags and other plastic bags, milk containers, Styrofoam of various shapes 
(the noodles were the worst since 
they were very numerous and got scattered everywhere but the large pieces were difficult to handle just due to their bulk).”

And in typical neighborly fashion, Mr. Wittenberg said “I feel bad that I won’t be doing my cleaning job anymore. Many people thanked me for my efforts. But it was getting me down.”

I think all of us owe Mr. Wittenberg a debt of thanks for keeping our streets clean for all these years. And do we have any takers to pick up where he leaves off with the rock on the hill?

Several dozen people turned out for the dedication of the Corwith Park 
boat launch on the edge of Mill Pond last Friday. Family members and 
former colleagues of the late Eric Corwith 
and Peter Corwith recalled fond memories of the father and son Trustees 
who did so much for the Water 
Mill community.