June - July 2002 Edition 

More Monitoring of Littering   By Chris Neidenberg   The Borough Council has implemented a policy where Department of Public Works (DPW) employees must monitor areas around Fair Lawn High School for set periods during lunch and after school. There, they will pick up any dropped trash and work with police in nailing litter violators.   At a recent work session, members voted 4-1 in approving Mayor David L. Ganz' plan to have DPW Superintendent Joe Maslo assign one worker in an area encompassing the school and the new designated smoking region, known informally as "The Corral," for part of the day through late June.    The policy kicked off after the council and Board of Education agreed to the municipality's leasing a tract, described as "a grassy knoll," behind the Berdan Avenue site. The council acquired the area so teens wishing to light up can keep doing so, with the goal of trying to keep them out of residential areas including Orchard, Lexington and Burbank streets.    Area residents complained that some students were loitering along their blocks during lunch while arrogantly dumping cigarettes and food waste on private properties. This practice apparently intensified once New Jersey enacted a law banning smoking on school grounds. Ganz has maintained that the council's leasing the school-owned area now makes smoking there legal.    The latest actions are additional strategies Fair Lawn is using in trying to cope with the apparent mess. The council has enacted new school-time parking restrictions on Orchard and tougher litter penalties. Some residents are skeptical over the borough's pledge to try stepping up litter enforcement, since only two litter tickets (out of 73) had been issued in the area from the start of school (when residents began griping) through May.  This, despite the fact that upset residents have scooped up literally "thousands" of butts.    In creating the smoking area, the council has incurred the wrath of statewide anti-tobacco groups. They complain that, whatever the goal, a public body simply has no business acting to allow smoking.    The decision to use DPW personnel came after Police Chief Rod Marshall, in a letter to the council, said he could not dedicate patrols to just policing the smoking problem for extended periods. Marshall assured the council that he will do his best in running spot checks at the site, though he cautioned his officers will have to actually see youths dumping butts or trash (or receive help from witnesses willing to sign complaints) before ticketing.    "The council should prioritize this and authorize, between now and the end of the school year expending and putting DPW personnel there for an hour during lunch and an hour after school," the mayor told colleagues. At the same time, Ganz cautioned that the workers do not have the legal "clout to direct students to leave areas, to issue tickets or to go any place."   He said such functions are "statutorily within the prerogative of the police department."    Councilman Vic Amato panned the idea, even while voting for it as a means of trying to do something. "I don't think it will work, not only because I think the DPW people don't want to do it, but also because this is a difficult problem to control," he said.    In voting "no," Deputy Mayor for Community Affairs Martin Etler said it sounded as though the borough was tolerating picking up after inconsiderate youths who carelessly dump trash. "I can't go with this," said Etler, who earlier backed creating the smoking zone to try aiding residents. "I think the idea is we're going to allow the students to come to one site, drop their cigarettes and leave."    Note:  Mr. Neidenberg is a talented local writer looking for a job.  If you have a job tip for him, send an e- mail to cn07055@aol.com