West Seattle has been keeping Tracy Cramer busy lately.
For the past year, she’s served as lead clean city inspector with Seattle Public Utilities and handles all reports of needles, graffiti and illegal dumping.
Cramer spoke during a recent luncheon hosted by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, held on Thursday, April 12 at the Kenney.
She reported that the number of calls she receives about graffiti in West Seattle has almost doubled in the past year. She received 427 graffiti reports this year, up from 223 the previous year.
“I want to know what’s going on in West Seattle,” she said.
The information comes from the “Find It, Fix It App,” a system that allows users to point crews to abandoned vehicles, potholes, garbage, debris and damaged streetlights.
“Take a picture of it, and we dispatch and clean it up,” Cramer said. “We come out, inspect it and remove it.”
Most of the notifications she receives on Find It, Fix It are about graffiti. She said that the number of illegal dumping reports has also increased in the area, up about 38 percent from last year.
There have been 17 recent requests for discarding needles, Cramer said. “West Seattle is the lowest in the six districts we look at for needles,” she said.
Still, she wanted area residents to know how to properly dispose of needles if found, especially as Seattle Public Utilities can only access and dispose of needles found on public property.
“Don’t touch a needle with bare hands,” she said. “If you don’t have gloves, just leave it there and call us.”
Cramer recommends using tweezers or pliers to pick up the needle by the barrel or plunger, not the sharp end. Then, place the needle in a solid plastic container, like an empty bottle. Next, she said, clean off tools with bleach or antiseptic and use hand sanitizer.
While West Seattle may have relatively low numbers of needles, Cramer said the concern is rising around the city.
