BERLIN – Concerns from a downtown business owner have prompted the town to promise increased cleanup efforts after special events.
On Monday, Brooks Davis, owner of Wainwright’s Tire Center, told the Berlin Town Council he’d spent the day after the town’s annual ball drop picking up trash left in his parking lot by attendees. Mayor Gee Williams apologized and offered the town’s assistance in the future.
“We’re committed to a partnership,” Williams said. “That’s how we got here as a town. Whatever future we have will be a better one if we continue to work together.”
Davis approached the council during the public comment portion of the meeting to share his frustration with the condition of the parking lot at Wainwright’s. He said that on Jan. 1 the parking lot was full of broken liquor bottles, empty beer cans and even vomit.
“That is not a town lot,” Davis said. “I don’t block the lot off. Many of you have parked there and gone to the (Atlantic) Hotel, gone to the Globe. After 5 o’ clock I don’t really enforce it. But if I can’t get help cleaning up after the town’s events I’m not going to have no choice but to block off the whole corner.”
When Williams asked if Davis had called anyone to voice his concern he said he’d spoken to Town Administrator Laura Allen.
“I asked her whose responsibility it should be if it’s left like that she said where I’m a private landowner it would be my responsibility and I said ‘do you believe that’s right?’” he said. “Her response to me was ‘you asked me a question I gave you an answer.’”
Allen said she explained to Davis that the town didn’t have the legal right to clean up his property without some kind of understanding.
Davis said that nevertheless there had been no offer of cleanup assistance.
“That’s my responsibility,” Williams said. “I apologize that some of our guests or maybe residents acted in such a way … We have to be realistic. People are people and they disappoint us sometimes.”
Williams said he was sorry that the town had disappointed Davis but agreed with Allen’s assertion that an agreement had to be in place before the town could cleanup private property.
“This is not something we had to deal with just a few years ago because we never had crowds …,” he said. “We are trying to do the right thing but we do not have a crystal ball.”
Davis, who owns the Salon Sixteen building as well as Wainwright’s, said he didn’t want to block off his properties’ parking area but that he would if he had to.
“We want to help,” Williams said. “Don’t beat me up for something I didn’t see coming.”
Davis said he already received complaints from townspeople for putting up “no parking” signs behind his building. What most don’t understand, he said, was that his customers’ cars had been damaged in the past by citizens using the lot in the evening. The trash from New Year’s Eve was “the last straw.”
Williams stressed that finding a solution for the lack of available parking spaces in town was high on the town’s priority list.
“We are going to be getting a comprehensive look at expanding parking capacity in this town, working with private property owners to see what resources we can bring together to improve the parking situation,” he said. “We certainly want to work with you as well. We’ll figure it out.”
Officials agreed that the town would ensure the parking lots at Wainwright’s and any other affected downtown businesses would be cleaned up after special events downtown.
