As the summer weather continues to lure many to the Town of Southampton beaches in September, the Town wants to remind beachgoers to clean up after themselves when they leave the beach. To help with those efforts, the Town unveiled a new rack of easy to use clean up baskets at Pike’s Beach.
The baskets were donated by local community member Aiden Kravitz, and co-sponsored by SMI/DRS-Solutions Management Inc. and Disaster Recovery Services. “The ocean is one of our greatest resources, our pick-up stations provide beachgoers the opportunity to protect and maintain the coastline they care about,” said Kravitz, co-founder of Relic, a sustainability company working to restore clean water by planting oysters.
Councilman John Bouvier was initially contacted by Westhampton Beach Trustee, Brian Tymann, who had worked with Mr. Kravitz to provide these baskets at the village beaches in Westhampton Beach. He thought highly of the program and recommended expanding it to Southampton Town. “It’s wonderful that Mr. Kravitz has started this program,” said Councilman John Bouvier. “I applaud his efforts to clean up our beaches. Water quality has always been a priority to me; clean beaches lead to cleaner water and this is a good way for all of us to pitch in.”
Councilman Rick Martel, who will be heading up the Great East End Cleanup on October 3rd and 4th said, “It is great to see our residents take this type of initiative at our town beaches. This will help foster community involvement and keep our beautiful beaches clean.”
The Town received similar donations of beach baskets last year from the Hampton Bays and Southampton Rotary Clubs and were placed at other area beaches. “As one of the liaisons to the Parks Department, I hope see more baskets at all our town beaches,” said Councilman Martel.