Allan Appel Photos
Welcome to Route 80: Scene by the Shell station. Marottoli, below.
Vinnie Marottoli would like to have a “Return To Sender Party” clean-up along Route 80.
The idea: Collect Walmart’s litter, Dunkin’s, 7 – 11’s, Taco Bell’s. Segregate each business’s litter and then return their very own bagged stuff right back to them.
That’s one approach to the frustration neighbors feel in Quinnipiac Meadows. Another proposal: organize a Special Services district in which business owners pay into a joint fund to support, among other tasks, ongoing public litter collection.
That latter proposal emerged at the regular monthly meeting of the Quinnipiac East Management Team(QEMT) convened Tuesday night at St. Joseph’s Church on East Grand Avenue.
Marottoli was joined by a small but outspoken group of area residents, many of whom over the years have participated in clean-ups along Route 80, bagging cups, wrappers, bottles, cans, and the detritus of the many fast-food purveyors along Route 80.
Then they return to seeing more and more junk littering the area. They are looking for a better way, one in which the businesses along that busy boulevard act more responsibly.
Enter Marottoli, who last month pitched to the QEMT chairman, Kurtis Kearney, the idea of organizing a special services district. Kearney then met — at Dunkin Donuts —with Frank Alvarado of the Spanish American Merchants Association.
Bekhrad, center, and other QEMT members voting at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Alvarado was instrumental in 2008 in helping to organize the Grand Avenue Village Association (GAVA), a special services district comprised largely of the stores along that business corridor.
As with sister SSDs in the Downtown and Chapel West areas, businesses agree to a modest self-tax and use that money to fund clean-up crews and other services beneficial to members and the area.
Looking east on Route 80 at Quinnipiac Avenue.
In the conversation that followed Tuesday night, Marottoli said his image of the SSD is quite basic: “I see a woman with a stick” cleaning up litter.
The QEMT recording secretary, Pat Kane, suggested it isn’t quite that simple.
“You need goals,” said Quinnipiac Avenue resident and area developer Fereshteh Bekhrad. “You can do cleaning, and also landscaping, standards for design. You can do a lot if you have the funds” — that is, if the businesses agree to the self-imposed tax required in an SSD.
Marottoli said he understands all of that. He just wants “to light a fire under them.”
The Taco Bell drive-through looking north on Quinnipiac Avenue at Rte 80.
Kearney said Grand Avenue in his estimation has become “far more inviting” since GAVA has gotten involved.
He offered that Alvarado had been positive about the prospects of an SSD on Route 80 but was also realistic, because there are big differences between the areas. Grand Avenue has many mom-and-pop shops. Route 80 features chains like Walmart, other big-box stores and fast food franchises with their plastic cups and paper wrappers galore.
Grand is also a city street always full of pedestrians, whereas Route 80 is a state road, with many sections un-sidewalked, and organized around vehicles, curb cuts, and parking. It also has a high rate of speeding and crashes.
Nevertheless, Kearney paraphrased Alvarado’s assessment as optimistic: “It’s going to take a while, but it’s doable.”
Kearney reads the crime report sent by District Mngr Lt. Jason Rentkowicz, who was absent due to his wedding anniversary.
“We’ll organize a subcommittee” on the matter, Kearney concluded
And where will the subcommittee be meeting?
“At Dunkin Donuts on Foxon,” of course.
As a resident of Quinnipiac Meadows, I think this is a GREAT idea! Clean up the area, create some jobs for residents, and make businesses more attractive to customers. Even corporate franchises have community outreach budgets they should be able to tap into.