Earth Day's Drift Wood Sculptures Removed by Croton Public Works

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Some residents are upset with the Croton Department of Public Work's cleanup efforts immediately following the April 28 Earth Day celebration, after which public works crews scooped up drift wood sculptures with backhoes in front of some of the 36 participants who created them.

Critics said the move showed the department was insensitive to the purpose of the festival, but village officials said the department was just doing its job in the most efficient manner.

“So they came in with the two big trucks and watched them scoop all this stuff up because it had to go to the skate park to get mulched,” said Molly Greece, a Croton resident and organizer of the drift wood sculpture contest. “Obviously, the DPW thinks we’re a bunch of idiots, they just don’t get it,” she said.

Village Manager Abraham Zambrano said the DPW was simply doing its job when it removed the sculptures.

“You know we don’t have time to go back and a disassemble it, we specifically make time, bring them in, so that they can collect all the debris. So it’s not to offend anybody, it’s just part of the job we have them do when they come in on that particular day,” said Zambrano. “The purpose of that Earth Day is not for sculpture building,” he said.

Although it was suggested by some advocates of the DPW that a specific town regulation governs when the DPW must pick up debris, Zambrano said legal reasons did not motivate the village’s cleanup efforts that day.

“More than anything else, it’s to be more efficient than more legal issues that concern. We could leave it there for six months if we wanted to, but the truth is, you and I know, that if you leave a pile of wood and things like that, there are people that are going to start taking them apart and they’re going to start swinging them into the park,” he said.

Zambrano said it would be a liability for the village “because if there’s all these sharp, blunt objects around, kids could run into it, they could get hurt. So we need to consider all those things. Not necessarily legally, but this is preventing any kind of potential hazards to the public.”

Zambrano was not immediately able to comment on Wednesday about how much it costs the village to bring in a DPW crew on overtime for Earth Day cleanup.

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