Skimming pools for leaves? Child?s play.
Skimming eight miles of shoreline for trees? That?s more like it.
Jason Szymanski has pulled some strange things out of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore City as marine operator for the city?s Department of Public Works Bureau of Solid Waste.
A four-year veteran of the job, Szymanski collects debris floating in the shoreline, from the Patapsco River all the way up to the Inner Harbor, about eight miles of shoreline.
His shift, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., has him retrieving soda bottles, coffee lids and Styrofoam ? but also items such as kegs and concrete from buildings.
“The strangest thing I pulled out was a portable toilet from one of the job sites around here,” he said. “I?ve also fished out televisions, refrigerators and even telephone poles from piers.”
His efforts do not go unnoticed.
“It?s an important part of the tourism industry,” Nancy Hinds of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association said. “They keep the city clean and fresh for visitors.”
Last year the Department of Public Works collected 960,000 pounds of garbage from the Inner Harbor ? about 500 tons, department superintendent Steven Becker said.
“Our guys work seven days a week, 365 days a year,” he said. “They work really hard.”
To collect trash, Szymanski, who declined to comment on his salary, drives a 60-foot pontoon boat with wings, which create a “vortex” that allows him to easily collect items gathered in corners.
Belts bring the debris onto the boat, and then on an offshore conveyor into storage containers.
When full, the containers are dumped in an incinerator or the landfill on Quarantine Road, Szymanski said.
“Every little bit helps against the constant flow of garbage into the harbor,” Hinds said. “Without them, we?d have so much more.”
