Greetings. The Planning & Zoning Department has received your submission and is looking into the reported issue. Please remain patient as our personnel work to resolve your issue. We will notify you when your submission has been resolved. Thank you.

The Hamden WEO will visit the park to verify the location of the dumping (presumably on the Hamden side of the municipal boundary), and will then notify the New Haven Dept of Parks, Recreation & Trees.

Thanks for the response. This dumping is still there as of this evening (Wednesday, 11/29). There is also a new cache of illegally-dumped materiel a little further up the hill, see my https://seeclickfix.com/issues/3914743. Very discouraging.

This is a note for the SCF staff. You've got to have a metric other than "Acknowledged" that goes back to the originator of these tickets at some set future time to see if the issue has actually been addressed to their satisfaction. That is a different metric than simply "acknowledging" the issue. I'd like to see a system in place with published, transparent reporting on such "customer satisfaction" surveys.

I have forwarded your note regarding the need for a customer satisfaction metric to the SCF staff and to my department head.

Thank you.

On Tuesday afternoon I drove to the Farnam Drive pulloff/lookout that is four-tenths of a mile from the Davis Street entrance to East Rock Park. From this vantage point I was able to scan all of the low-lying areas between Farnam Drive and the Lake Whitney dam, but I was unable to spot any illegally-dumped material, mattresses, etc. Clearly I was looking in the wrong place, so I need a more precise description of debris location. How far down Farnam Drive from the Davis Street entrance should I park in order to spot the material ? This is the type of information that I would pass along to New Haven Parks & Rec.

Hi I think it's pretty clearly marked on the SCF ticket map. Can you clarify whether Hamden is responsible for picking this up or is it a New Haven's Parks Department issue? I'm sure New Haven Parks is familiar with the spot. If you descend (head south) on Farnam Drive from Davis you will first pass the main Park entrance road on the left. Keep going. Halfway between that point and the closed-off loop road (about 1/4 of a mile further down/south) you will see the upholstered stuff chucked down off the side of Farnam Drive (on the west side of the road). Then keep going until you hit that little closed-off loop road, park there, and again look down/southwest off of Farnam Drive and you will find the tires, mattress/box spring, and other surprises. I tried to be pretty specific with the pins I put on the SCF map so maybe bring a printout of that with you. If you give me some notice I'm also happy to stop by and meet you in person to show you the spots and to talk about this ongoing problem with illegal dumping in the park.

To the best of my knowledge Hamden Public Works has never had any maintenance responsibility for any portion of East Rock Park.

Since it is definitely a New Haven Parks issue (despite the Hamden geo-location) and since you're pretty certain they're already familiar with these heavy dumping spots, it's probably better if we forward the information directly to Rebecca Bombero and Dan Barvir. I'll get their e-mail addresses.

I e-mailed your description of the debris locations to Ms. Bombero and to Mr. Barvir and I've received the following response from Ranger Barvir:

Thanks for the heads up
Reports like yours are coming in daily.
Illegal dumping seems out of control.
We will address matter as soon as possible.
Thanks again

I'll leave this issue open with the hope & expectation that they'll remove the debris in timely fashion

Because Ranger Barvir has taken ownership of this matter I have decided to close the issue.

Greetings. The Planning & Zoning Department is pleased to announce that your reported issue has been resolved. Thank you for submitting your concerns to P&Z. Please contact our office at 203-287-7070 with any further questions or concerns.

Thanks for staying on top of this @InlandWetlandAgent. I was also under the assumption that New Haven Parks is in charge of dumping remediation in the park, which indicates that there's an ongoing problem with how littering/dumping tickets in East Rock Park are geotagged/routed by SeeClickFix. I'm disappointed that neither New Haven Parks nor SeeClickFix has chimed into this thread to clarify their positions.

Let me know when New Haven Parks removes the debris that is the subject of this complaint. If it's not done in a couple of weeks, I can send Ranger Barvir a reminder. (It's important that they get it removed before the onset of snow and ice)