Sheboygan cleans up after Independence Day
Crews started early in the morning to clean up litter along Sheboygan's Lakefront
SHEBOYGAN — About two dozen city workers and volunteers started to clean up Sheboygan’s beaches early Saturday morning after the Independence Day festivities.
The City of Sheboygan expected thousands to pack the city’s lakefront beaches and parks on Friday. While the city does not release attendance figures, Independence Day is the most highly attended beach day of the year and it leaves behind an oversized mess. To clean it all up, the undertaking began around 5:30 AM with crews starting at Lakeview Park and making their way north and finishing up at North Point Park.
Despite additional trash cans placed along the beaches and in the parks specifically for July 4th, crews spent hours on Saturday manually picking up garbage left behind. Even though city ordinance prohibits alcoholic beverages on the beaches, workers were finding a couple hundred beer cans and glass bottles. Glass bottles are especially dangerous as they pose a safety hazard to those walking or playing on the beach. Children could be cut by broken glass in the sand.
Other items found by crews included plastic bags, cigarette butts, fast-food wrappers, sandals, socks, beach towels, and used condoms. At least two abandoned tents were found at Deland Beach and South Side Municipal Beach. Spent fireworks were also found at Lakeview Park, General King Park and Rotary Riverview Park.
While workers were cleaning up the lakefront, crews were also picking up trash and recyclables on the city’s south side. Due to the holiday, neighborhood trash collection regularly scheduled for Friday was delayed by one day. The city’s trash collection will resume its normal operating schedule on Monday and will not be impacted again until Labor Day.
To report trash, damage or other concerns at the city’s parks or beaches, call the Department of Public Works at (920) 459-3440 or submit a report online at sheboygan.us/ServiceRequest.
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Glad that someone is calling attention to this cleanup effort. It’s things like this that often get overlooked and taken for granted, but they make a huge difference and it is a lot of work. Thanks WKTS.