Resident describes volunteer cleanup at yacht club area, urges new approaches to downtown homelessness

During public comment at the March 4 Shelton City Council meeting, resident Dean Jewett described a volunteer cleanup effort along the tracks near the yacht club and urged the council to consider additional steps to address downtown homelessness and public health hazards.

“We’ve removed about 25,000 pounds of garbage from the top of that hill,” Jewett said. He told the council volunteers included business owners, recovery-cafe members and people experiencing homelessness and that crews collected multiple containers of used hypodermic needles; he said both his partner and he each had three containers of needles from the site.

Jewett said he had spoken with county staff and that the group plans to next clean yacht-club-owned property alongside the tracks after the yacht-club board president and a Recovery Cafe representative provide trespass notices and offer services. He told council staff—naming Chief Costad and City Manager Mark Sigler as being aware—that volunteers planned to clear the area and designate it as no trespassing after outreach and notices.

Jewett said he had opposed a mitigation site proposal several years earlier but that he was open to alternatives now that the downtown situation has led to open defecation and urination and repeated problems near businesses. He also said if the city regains staffing capacity he would lead a volunteer patrol effort.

The comments were given during the public-comment period; the transcript does not show the council taking immediate action in response to the remarks. Jewett did not identify an official organizational role in the transcript; he described the cleanup effort as a loose volunteer group and referenced contacts at the county and with the Recovery Cafe.