Local invention helping to clean up Kensington

What do a roast chicken vendor in Ann Arbor, a zoo in Florida and Kensington’s commercial corridor have in common?

The use of a custom-designed personal cargo trike created by Stephen Haley’s Kensington shop, Haley Tricycles. The vehicles are comprised of three wheels and a seat attached to a large box from which you can sell food, collect animal droppings or pick up trash.

“A person can cover more ground and work an entire day without stopping. Insurance and gas are also cheaper than with anything else,” said Henry Pyatt of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, which commissioned the trike after receiving an $80,000 grant from the Commerce Department to clean the neighborhood corridor for a year.

The three-gear trash-collecting tricycle, which hit the street last week, can carry up to 400 pounds and is equipped with separate bins for refuse and recycling, as well as graffiti-cleaning supplies.

“It gives people a little more dignity than walking and pulling a trash can around the city all day,” Pyatt said.