LEONARDTOWN — The shared dumpster enclosure at Leonardtown’s Park Avenue parking lot, a long-running sore spot for the downtown restaurants that depend on it, is scheduled for new containers and a top-to-bottom power washing.
Town Administrator Laschelle McKay told the mayor and Town Council on Nov. 9 that the town’s trash hauler was expected to deliver replacement dumpsters within days, after a meeting between town staff and the company’s managers aimed at getting faster responses.
The enclosure sits in the public lot most downtown visitors are steered toward, and the businesses around it have no other place to put their trash. McKay said the condition of the area has also caused trouble for restaurants with the health department. She did not cite any specific violation.
The plan
McKay laid out the sequence for the council:
- The hauler lifts the old containers out of the enclosure and sets them in nearby parking spaces. She asked that this wait until Thursday, Nov. 12, to stay clear of the Veterans Day parade.
- A contractor power washes the empty enclosure over the weekend.
- New containers go in. McKay said they will close fully and have doors.
The town has also worked out a new arrangement for the grease containers that sit beside the dumpsters, she said, one meant to make that area easier to clean regularly. McKay said she has tried for a couple of years to solve the grease problem; a tray under the containers would simply fill with rainwater. The containers are needed, she said, because they keep grease out of the storm drains.
A council member asked whether the grease containers could be boxed in so they are out of sight. McKay said only one company services them and she needs to confirm what access it requires.
Why it keeps happening
McKay described the upkeep as a shared failure. In her account, the hauler has repeatedly changed the people managing the town’s account, cleanup requests are answered but not done well, and town staff sometimes have to follow drivers to get them to clean up spills.
Under the town’s previous trash company, she said, a local representative would come out and clean the enclosure himself, often the same day.
Users share the blame, by her telling. The town earlier added a walk-through door at the back of the enclosure because some businesses were throwing bags over the wall to avoid walking around to the front. Lids left open have let animals in.
“I don’t know how long it will last,” McKay said of the new containers, and she appealed to the businesses to use the enclosure properly once it is clean.
What it may cost
McKay did not put a price on the container swap or the power washing. She said she does not expect the hauler to keep the enclosure clean on a regular basis and that the town will probably have to pay the power-washing contractor, or another company, to do it on a schedule.
That would be a new recurring expense in a year when the council is weighing several others, among them a proposal to sharply raise the fee developers pay in place of providing parking. Both discussions center on the same Park Avenue lot, which the town once studied as a site for a parking garage.
The council took no vote on the dumpster plan. Members welcomed the cleanup and asked when the power washing would happen.
