Waging a war on city weeds

It’s no “Little Shop of Horrors,” but some Ozone Park residents are upset over some out-of-control weeds.
“It’s getting worse and worse, they have been growing since the spring,” said Howard Kamph, president of the Ozone Park Civic Association, who told The Courier that garbage, too, is often at problem at the location, at 80th Street between Pitkin and Liberty Avenues, near Acacia Cemetery.
“Every once in a while the Department of Sanitation will come by and clean up the garbage,” noted Kamph.
According to the 3-1-1 web site, the location received two complaints for “Illegal Dumping Surveillance” in late July and “The Department of Sanitation is in the process of investigating this complaint.”
City Councilmember Eric Ulrich too does clean-ups – but the weeds remain untouched, says Kamph.
“My daughter has seen rats and there are lots of mosquitoes and bugs after it rains,” he said.
A 3-1-1 spokesperson said that complaints should be called in, and the web site notes that “the city accepts reports of overgrown grass or weeds in parks and on highways, road medians and traffic islands. The city directs traffic island and median complaints differently depending on whether there is landscaping on the site. Landscaped traffic islands or medians have benches or planted trees, shrubs or flowers.”
As of press time, the spokesperson said 3-1-1 would look into the situation.
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