Residents of a senior citizen residence and senior center were tired of constantly looking at garbage dumped across the street from their building, and it seemed like no one they contacted could help.
The area across from the parking lot of Fort Schuyler House at 3077 Cross Bronx Expressway has been a dumping ground for everything from household garbage to furniture. The wooded area across from the building provides a nice buffer between the senior housing and the Cross Bronx Expressway below, but also shields the illegal dumping.
Fort Schuyler House had reached out to the Sanitation Department, but with no response. A chance visit from Senator Jeff Klein put the wheels in motion on a massive cleanup conducted by the NYC Department of Transportation. DOT cleaned, and then weeded and cut grass in the area located along the Cross Bronx Expressway service road from the Throgs Neck Expressway towards East Tremont Avenue.
Klein’s visit on Monday, July 12, produced results.
“Whether it is graffiti or litter, we will not tolerate the tarnishing of our neighborhoods,” Klein said. “I am very happy that we were able to resolve this matter and improve the quality of life for Fort Schuyler residents.”
According to Cheryl Dennis, executive director of Fort Schuyler House, the DOT conducted the cleanup between Monday, July 12 and Friday, July 16 and cleaned along the side of the service road and highway not only in front of Fort Schuyler House, but also in front of other places along the service road near Dewey and Logan avenues.
“We are ecstatic because they did a very thorough job,” said Dennis. “And they didn’t just do one block. They cleaned across the entire length of our building and the next two blocks.”
Dennis said just about everything imaginable has been dumped in the area, and Fort Schuyler House has received a tip that much of the dumping is being done by someone from the Throggs Neck community. However, no one has caught anyone in the act.
Dennis said that much of the dumping occurs directly across from the parking lot of the facility, which is more secluded than across from the front of the building.
The organization had been in touch with the Sanitation Department, but Dennis said that Klein finally got the job done.
“A few months ago they even dumped a sofa,” said Ann Marie Abruzzi, of the Fort Schuyler Senior Center. “Within one week DOT took care of the opposite side of the street. The city did a great job.”
