OCEAN CITY — Resort officials last week agreed to provide gates around dumpsters at the Northside Park facility after area residents complained about their relocation.
During the Jan. 10 Recreation and Parks Committee meeting, Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito said some dumpsters at Northside Park had been relocated when it was learned some commercial businesses in the area had been filling them up with their own trash at the town’s expense.
“The dumpsters out front were being abused by commercial businesses in that area,” she said. “As a result, the dumpsters were moved around to the side, but now we’re hearing complaints from the neighboring condos.”
Petito said moving the dumpsters back to their original location was not an option due to the abuses by neighboring businesses. She said in the interest of being good neighbors, the department was considering putting gates around the dumpsters to placate the concerned residents, but doing so came with a $3,500 price tag.
She said the funding was available in the Recreation and Parks budget and no special allocation was needed, but she was seeking guidance from the Recreation and Parks Committee on how to proceed. Council President and committee member Lloyd Martin said the first goal was to determine where the complaints were coming from.
“We need to reach out to the condo managers and let them know what we’re hearing,” he said. “Maybe it’s as simple as keeping the dumpsters in place and putting gates around them. I think we need to find out where the issues are coming from. It might just be one or two people.”
Councilman and committee chair Wayne Hartman said determining the source of the complaints was a good idea.
“I think that’s a good step forward,” he said. “We need to see who has a problem and what we need to do to correct it if possible.”
Petito said the abuses by neighboring businesses were only part of the problem with the old location of the dumpsters.
“Aside from the abuses, the other issue with the old location is the trash trucks actually cracked our parking lot,” she said.
Hartman said the continued abuse by the neighboring businesses coupled with the damage to the parking lot was reason enough to keep the dumpsters in their new location and buck up the $3,500 for gates to placate the neighbors.
“In light of this new information, I think the $3,500 is a good investment,” he said. “First, we heard of the problem with the dumping, but now we’re hearing of parking lot damage.”
