Newest places for needle disposals: alley by Cameron Park and boat landing on Clinton St.

Health dir. says no security cameras will track people.

La Crosse has two new drop boxes for used syringes.

One at the Clinton St. boat landing and another in an alley off King St., near Cameron Park.

Asst. fire chief Mark Amann hopes that the boxes will cut down on the number of clean-up calls that his department has to make.

“We try to send our rescues versus a big fire engine,” Amann said, “but still, that ties up that rescue which might be on a needle pickup, which slows our response if we’re not where we’re supposed to be in the central part of town at our station.”

La Crosse County health director Jen Rombalski says the metal box will be safer than other ways of tossing used needles.

“It doesn’t matter the source of the needles,” Rombalski said. “We have medical needles that are also used.

“And so we want accessibility to be an important factor for folks to, especially drive up in their vehicles and be able to dispose of needles easily without having to get out of their vehicles if need be.”

Rombalski also promises that no security cameras will be used to keep track of people who deposit needles at the boxes.

“We do see a lot of responses, kind of, in this area – Copeland Park area,” Amann said, “and it seems like we’ll find them along the river, the boat docks.”

La Crosse’s county health dept. and city fire dept. are among the groups sponsoring the boxes.