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By Caroline Spivack<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Daily<\/p>\n
They wanna trash this dumpster.<\/p>\n
Dyker Heights residents are demanding that the city remove a construction dumpster that\u2019s been rotting on 79th Street for nearly a year.<\/p>\n
The reviled receptacle has become an illegal dumping site for area businesses and contractors, and the bin is more than an eyesore \u2014 it could harbor health threats such as asbestos, neighbors say.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople drive up and dump all sorts of things in there. No one knows what\u2019s being dumped, it could be anything,\u201d said Maria Vigorito who lives two doors down. \u201cSome of that debris could be asbestos, lead, mold. We don\u2019t know. It\u2019s a health hazard to us breathing all that in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The container is there legally, but the people using it are tossing rules in the waste bin, locals said.<\/p>\n
The city first issued a dumpster permit to contractors working on a house at 1341 79th St. in October 2015, according to records from the Department of Transportation, which issues such permits.<\/p>\n
Residents say area businesses have taken advantage of the can, filling it with junk in violation of the its permit, according to Community Board 10 district manager Josephine Beckmann.<\/p>\n
The city renewed permits for the waste bin \u2014 which expire every three months \u2014 several times despite community complaints. The Department of Transportation rejected the contractor\u2019s latest renewal application because of locals\u2019 uproar. There also is a stop-work order on the building, because contractors were illegally excavating the basement, city records show.<\/p>\n
But neither the sanitation nor transportation departments is taking responsibility for carting off the dumpster, locals said.<\/p>\n
Councilman Vincent Gentile\u2019s (D\u2013Bay Ridge) office is lobbying the transportation department to take it away, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Block residents have started a petition demanding the city revisit it\u2019s refuse-container-renewal policy so other people don\u2019t have to live through their hell, another neighbor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be some sort of policy change, it\u2019s not fair to the community that this thing can sit here for months,\u201d said Mary Spelman, who filed the petition with Community Board 10.<\/p>\n
Reach reporter Caroline Spivack at cspivack@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260\u20132517. Follow her on Twitter @carolinespivack.<\/p>\n
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