Letters

Once a year, I clean all of Butter Lane, from Scuttle Hole Road to Montauk Highway. This year, I accumulated 13 garbage bags of street refuse, two times more than any prior year.

It it me or is our town becoming a dumping ground? Our town administrators need to take action, and here are some proposals.

Increase the fine for littering. Double the fines and, importantly, require the offender to work off half of the fine by performing street cleaning.

Even more offensive are those convicted of DWI. Require DWI offenders, both rich and less well off, to work off half of the fine by cleaning our streets. The result? Cleaner streets and a stronger message to would-be violators.

Building a home is messy. General contractors should be required to cover open dumpsters from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. to prevent waste from flying out. Additionally, any active construction site abutting a town road should be required to have the general contractor be responsible for cleaning the road, 150 yards in each direction, once a month. We love our construction trade, but their business is not so tidy.

Those who put their garbage on our properties are reprehensible. However, we all must act for the greater good and clean our own properties that face the street. I can assure you, the bottle or can on your property is never going to disappear without you removing it.

Let us make each of our neighborhoods better by “holding our nose” and removing the stink that an inconsiderate person tossed onto our property. If we do not clean up our own properties, no one will, and our bucolic neighborhoods will be a just a memory.

Kevin Cox

Bridgehampton