Saugus Town Meeting members concerned over debris and refuse building up

SAUGUS-Precinct 9 Town Meeting member Rick Smith said he is concerned that the community is suffering from a loss other than one of the economic variety.”I’m talking about pride,” he said.Smith told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting that it saddens him to see what he believes is an increasing amount of trash drifting around town.Aware that the town is in an economic crunch, Smith suggested the Board of Selectmen institute littering fines or at the very least put more barrels in public areas such as Cliftondale Square.He said when driving through Melrose and Wakefield he counted 15-20 barrels in front of businesses.”Could we put out more barrels or urge the businesses to do it?” he asked. “I’m not sure if we have the budget to do so.”Smith said he would also like to contact the state highway department to see if it would consider addressing the graffiti scrawled on the underpasses.”Anything we can do to spruce up the town,” he said.Smith said just because the town is suffering financially it shouldn’t have to suffer aesthetically because “we have a beautiful town and it should be kept that way.”Town Meeting member Ann Devlin agreed with Smith and took the trash issue one step further to include dog droppings as well.”We did pass a bylaw regarding dog poop and it’s not being enforced,” she said.Devlin said it’s a law that dog owners must clean up after their pets but it is clearly not being done.”It’s not only unsightly, it’s unsanitary,” she said. “It’s not good for the environment or for any of us.”Trash has been a problem this spring but Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said it’s early yet, and asked residents to give the town a chance.”It’s been a long winter,” he said.Trash seems to have congregated around the schools and parks, but mostly on the fringe caught up under guard rails and crushed into fences and much of that trash appears to be water and sports drink bottles and coffee cups. The play area at Anna Parker off Essex Street was recently littered with coffee cups despite the fact there are two garbage cans in the immediate vicinity, another mere steps away and more than a dozen spread between the four fields there.Like Bisignani, Public Services Superintendent Joseph Attubato said residents need to be a little patient.”People are too impetuous,” he said. “We’re understaffed and the snow just melted.”Attubato said the annual clean up has begun and he has already received several calls regarding Anna Parker, which, he added, has since been cleaned up.Public Works uses the park’s large parking lot as a dumping ground for snow removed from Cliftondale Square. When that melts, Attubato said there is often sand and debris left behind but that has been swept up.Now Attubato has moved onto Stocker Park, which was hit by vandals last week.”We’ll hit all the parks and do a general clean up,” he said. “People just have to be patient.”Bisignani said as for additional barrels, business owners should be reminded that they are responsible for keeping their store front areas clean.”They’ll do it,” he added. “We just have to keep after them.”