Hopefully we are teaching people personal responsibility — that when they go to the beach or go fishing, that they bring their trash home with them.”

Keith Hamilton, Portsmouth Town Council

PORTSMOUTH — Think twice before you discard that paper cup or nip bottle on a local beach or park.

In a move intended to give police more teeth when enforcing littering laws, the Town Council Monday night unanimously approved changes to a local ordinance that sets fines starting at $85 and ranging all the way up to $3,000 for the most egregious violators.

The amendments to Chapter 243 of the Town Code, which concerns littering, was made at behest of the town’s Harbor Commission. The harbor panel was charged in July 2023 with studying the problem and coming up with recommendations on how to remedy the situation. Although police are called to respond to such complaints on a regular basis, a real strategy to deal with the scourge was needed, council members said.

The biggest problem areas in town are usually popular fishing spots that are accessible via a public right of way (ROW), where visitors often leave behind dirty diapers, fishing hooks, plastic bags, empty bottles of booze, and more. They also often trespass on private property, make excessive noise, start illegal fires and drink alcohol. 

A subcommittee of the harbor group reviewed all these issues, “but what they tackled was littering, for starters,” said council member David Gleason, the council liaison to the committee, which he said reviewed other municipalities’ ordinances for ideas.

The changes defined “litter” and what constituted a prohibited act, but the biggest changes concerned fines to give the ordinance “more teeth” when a case is reviewed in Portsmouth Municipal Court, said Gleason, noting that the Police Department, Town Planner Lea Hitchen and the town’s legal counsel has reviewed and approved the changes.

“This is a start,” he said.

Under the ordinance as amended, which took effect immediately, anyone convicted of a first violation is subject to a fine of anywhere from $85 to $1,000. (An $85 penalty may be disposed of by mailing a check or money order, rather than by appearing in Municipal Court.) In addition to, or in lieu of the fine, the person convicted may also be ordered to pick up litter for anywhere from two to 25 hours.

A second or subsequent violation means a fine of anywhere from $300 to $5,000, and/or an order to pick up litter for four to 50 hours.

In addition to the other penalties, anyone convicted of violating the chapter is liable for the removal of all litter, or ordered to pay restitution for the cost of removal of all litter illegally disposed by that person.

Personal responsibility debated

Council member Charles Levesque said he originally thought a $5,000 fine was excessive, and that he had never heard of a municipal court setting such a large penalty. “But quite frankly if someone does something disastrous, perhaps that’s the proper thing to do,” he said.

However, Levesque noted that the proposed amendment mentions trash receptacles despite the fact that you usually can’t find one at most of the waterfront access points. 

“It is all well and good to say you shan’t do something or you cannot do something … but if you do not provide a person an opportunity to do something else, that’s somewhat problematic,” he said. “If you have a little place over there and say, ‘That’s where you can put all this stuff,’ there’s a virtue to this.” 

Council member Keith Hamilton, however, said putting out trash bins is not a path that the state or most municipalities are going down.  “Hopefully we are teaching people personal responsibility — that when they go to the beach or go fishing, that they bring their trash home with them,” said Hamilton, adding that hopefully, “the word spreads that you cannot litter anymore in Portsmouth.”

Levesque, a Democrat running for reelection, suddenly brought politics into the discussion as he turned to Hamilton, a Republican who’s also running again.

“Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing,” Levesque said. “I would say that the people running for office from your party have not demonstrated any of it in their lives.”

Hamilton responded that personal responsibility is an issue “on both sides of the aisle.”

Added Gleason, another GOP member seeking to keep his seat, “As a Republican, I respect these types of things. I dispose of my trash at home, so I don’t want to be lumped in the Republican category of those who don’t.”

Council member J. Mark Ryan shared some of Levesque’s reservations regarding the ordinance change.

“It clarifies what’s allowed and what isn’t, but the problem is people are going to ignore this or they’re not going to ignore this. We don’t have the police presence to be able to patrol every beach, every green wooded lot, every byroad. We’ll just have to see how this goes,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to instruct people who are already adults in personal responsibility and any solution we come up with is prone to abuse.”

Despite the concerns, the requested ordinance changes were approved in a 6-0 vote. Council member Daniela Abbott was absent from the meeting.

Future meetings

The council will meet at 7 p.m. on the follow dates at Town Hall: Monday, Sept. 9; Monday, Sept. 23; and Tuesday, Oct. 15.