Politics & Government

Fort Lee Awarded Nearly $50K to Clean Up Community

The state's "Clean Communities" grant funding will be used to hire kids this summer, likely resulting in cleaning up the borough's parks, officials say. Do you think that's a good use of the money?

The Christie Administration Monday announced almost $16 million in Clean Communities grants to fund litter cleanup efforts in municipalities and counties to “help beautify New Jersey’s communities and roadsides.”

Fort Lee was awarded $49,575.92, making the borough the third largest recipient in Bergen County after Hackensack and Teaneck, and local officials say the money will go toward the borough’s now annual program in which it hires high school and college kids during the summer to do special projects and clean up the community.

“[In the past] they’ve had kids cleaning up the parks and different littered areas in town,” said Fort Lee Councilwoman Ila Kasofsky, the Council liaison to the Environmental and Beautification Committee. “This is a great thing; they go around, and they pick up all the litter and stuff that’s probably been lying there all year.”

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Borough Administrator Peggy Thomas said the Fort Lee has been getting the grant funding “for several years,” although it started in the $30,000 to $35,000 range and is up to nearly $50,000 this year.

“We hire a group of summer kids that go around town and do special projects cleaning up the community, whether it’s Main Street, where they take care of the flowers on Main Street, or they work in the parks, making sure that the parks are clean,” Thomas said. “Sometimes they’ll paint yellow curbs; it’s a nice program.”

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This year, she said, the summer cleanup crews are likely to “start cleaning up those parks” under the supervision of Michael Maresca of the Fort Lee Department of Public Works (DPW).

“They just put them on the street getting stuff done,” Thomas said. “And we have a group of kids that come back for a few years in a row sometimes.”

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) awarded $13.86 million to 559 municipalities and an additional $1.73 million to all 21 counties this year, according to state officials.

Funding for the grants comes from a user-fee on manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors that produce “litter-generating products,” officials said.

Amounts are based on the number of housing units in each municipality and the miles of locally owned roadways.

Kasofsky said that while the Clean Communities grants are helpful, she’d like to see cleaning up Fort Lee taken a step further.

“I still would like to organize groups of citizens to pick up litter,” she said. “Because in Fort Lee, people just fling things out of their cars on the way to New York.”

Editor’s Note: Click here to see how much each municipality received and here to find out how much each county was awarded.


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