Nearly every weekend, Bob Braczyk and his wife Monica Bernier come to Westport from their Manhattan apartment.
Every morning they’re here — rain or shine — Bob joins Mark Yurkiw and his wife Wendy Van Wie on their daily 3.5-mile dog walk. The route includes Cross Highway, Sturges Highway, Meeker Road and Bayberry Lane.
Bob is here to relax. But when he joins the Yurkiws Bob brings a plastic claw, and the biggest recycled plastic bag he can find. He wants to clean the streets of his weekend hometown.
No matter how big the bag — and some are huge — he always fills it up. By the end, he’s stuffing in more trash than it can hold.
Bob Braczyk, with one day’s haul. Keeping pace is Wendy Van Wie.
Mostly, Mark says, the garbage is
- Coffee cups
- Beer cans
- Liquor bottles
- Cigarette packs
- Fast food wrappers
- Really gross things
“It’s virtually always the same items,” Mark says. “And I suspect from the same people — who live here.”
It’s great that Bob — who lives here only a couple of days a week — cleans up after us.
But what a shame he has to.