04/18/2006: "Household Garbage Ending up in Town Cans"

The number one topic at a recent meeting by the Chamber Downtown Forum was the amount of trash, garbage, and in particular, cigarette butts that are littering the streets of downtown Friday Harbor. According to the Chamber: The Town of Friday Harbor street crew sweeps the streets and provides garbage cans and disposal of trash. It faces the challenge of the often all night parking on streets that prevents cleaning all the way up to the curb. In addition, local usage of public garbage cans for disposal of bags of trash, instead of the "on the go" trash intended, causes some cans to fill more quickly than the town can empty them. The Town does not have the additional manpower to regularly clean the sidewalks.

The question posed at the forum was, "How can we "clean up" this problem of trash on the sidewalks and curbs? After much discussion and exchange of ideas, the forum agreed that the responsibility really lies with the business owners/employees. Businesses should make it part of the opening routine to spend a few minutes to sweep the sidewalk and curb, all part of the storefront, in front of the business. Several of those at the forum do it now and shared their thoughts about how little time it actually takes, plus it gives them time to chat with their neighbors, a good start to the day. The appearance of a business from the outside is just as important as that on the inside. Research show that this is the policy adopted in most commercial areas.

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The Chamber Downtown Forum's kick-off session resulted in productive interaction among the 31 attendees. The purpose of the forum is to provide a venue for open discussion, planning and action with regards to the Town of Friday Harbor, to develop a sense of community spirit and connected-ness among the stakeholders.

The Chamber Downtown Forum is taking action to cultivate an attitude that taking responsibility to clean the sidewalks and curbs is the norm and not the exception; an attitude that demonstrates that our businesses take pride in the appearance of their storefronts and, therefore, the appearance of our town. Participants at the forum have committed to help cultivate this attitude by adding a daily cleanup to their own opening process and by distributing a flyer that invites others to join in.

April 22 is Earth Day. During the week prior to that day, members of the Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary and Soroptimists service clubs will have a station at Market Place for people to sign up to clean streets around the island in the County. For the first time, the Town of Friday Harbor will be included on the sign up map and the Town will provide pick up of the trash bags.