POLL: Keeping Westport Clean With New Garbage, Cigarette Receptacles

When business owners began to point out the garbage and cigarette butts on Main Street, the Downtown Merchants Association (DMA) answered by donating five new waste receptacles and two cigarette receptacles.

“It’s a challenge to find out who is supposed to clean up downtown,” said Stephen R. Desloge, President of the DMA.

Although Desloge would like to see a team effort, he believes it is the community’s responsibility to keep the area clean as long as they have the resources to do so. He would like to see everyone pitch in, including landlords, merchants and the Town of Westport.

“I think we’ll have a much-improved physical area and be proud to walk down Main Street. The fact of the matter is, I don't think the community is proud to walk down Main Street today,” he said.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Interested in Westport's news, events, community bulletins, blogs and businesses? Sign up for the free Westport Patch daily newsletter, "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

________________________________________________________________________________________

The waste receptacles, which cost about $800 each, and the cigarette receptacles, which cost about $100 each, will be strategically placed throughout downtown. Specifically, the DMA will be focusing on locations where people congregate and areas with benches, Desloge said.

The cigarette receptacles will be put near the Parker Harding area, where there are several benches and umbrellas by the Saugatuck River directly across from , according to Desloge. The other receptacle will be nearby the bench outside of where many workers sit on their break.

Desloge, who is the owner and president of , said the DMA is also working to beautify downtown in other ways.

The DMA's ‘Bump Out’ project will remove the old railroad ties (refer to pictures) at the intersection of Main and Elm streets nearby and . In its place will be an old-fashioned light post surrounded by a flower garden and a brick walkway, according to Desloge. The project, which will cost the DMA approximately $20,000, will begin sometime after Labor Day and is schedlued to be completed by October.