LANSING, Mich. — The area alongside the Lansing River Trail near Clippert Street is looking better after years of debris from encampments piled up.
“Seeing all of that was really disturbing,” said resident Christina Marsh.
Marsh came to us about the mess a couple weeks ago. After taking a tour through the area, we later learned there was something more dangerous hiding under and around the debris.
“There’s a dangerous of needles and you can’t see the needles,” said Lansing City Councilman Ryan Kost.
After we broke the story, Kost reached out to the Lansing Parks and Recreation Department, which prompted them to start cleaning up the area on Tuesday.
“We had a number of pieces of pot equipment that we took out there to remove the debris from there to remove the trash, and we’re still in the process of that clean up, so hopefully, it’s done by next week,” said Lansing Parks and Recreation Director Brett Kaschinske.
And while the area is almost cleaned up, Marsh said the city should be focusing on addressing a bigger problem to make sure the mess doesn’t come back.
"They need to do something about the homelessness in the area,” she said.
