Town cleanup becomes individual project
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ST IGNATIUS – A few people usually turn out for the annual Saturday morning town cleanup in front of the city hall, but this year saw a record low.
“It looks like no one is going to show up,” said Ray Frey, town councilmember. “We might as well get started.”
Public Works Director Scott Morton and Frey climbed into a backhoe and cruised the town looking for garbage. They were hoping to use the backhoe to load up things people weren’t able to haul.
“If people are able, we’d rather they put things in the dumpster, but some people aren’t able so we try to help,” Morton said.
They stopped at a brush pile in an alley first thing in the morning and got out their pitchforks and rakes to load the debris into the bucket on the backhoe.
“Sometimes people just don’t have a truck or anyway to haul the stuff to the dump,” Frey said.
The annual town cleanup started about ten years ago.
“It started to help people get rid of their winter garbage so we could try and help the town look better,” Morton said.
Morton and Frey both agreed that the effort has helped over the years.
“When this first started the alleys were full of junk,” Frey said.
The event used to have a bigger turnout including people painting curbs, but project enthusiasm has dwindled.
“People have stopped coming out, but if we stopped doing this you would notice,” Frey said.
Despite the low morning turnout, the big dumpster eventually filled up over the weekend.
“People usually start putting things in later on in the day,” Frey said. “We’ve already got a bathtub in there, but for some reason, people just don’t come out to clean up the town together, but they do clean up by themselves.”
Frey and Morton hope interest in the project revives.
“I’d like to get the town interested again for next year,” Morton said.
