Update 3/14/18 – Amount of trash collected 13,280 lbs ( 6.75 tons)
Opinion Piece By Donna Westfall – March 10, 2018 –
It was 9:30 am and I arrived 1/2 hour late unloading my wheelbarrow, rake and shovel. Already four dozen people were hard at work. Heavy, black plastic garbage bags were provided. I didn’t know most of the people that came to clean-up. It wasn’t easy work either. For example, tugging and pulling wet, filthy sleeping bags out of the dirt laden with cans, broken glass, batteries and other junk. Then shlepping the bags and wheelbarrows to the dumpsters. There was nothing salvageable. I know. I love to reclaim usable stuff.
Can’t say enough about cooperation & working together. You could already see the dent made by 50 people working together. In place of trash, there was dirt – as it should be.
I asked some younger people how they heard about the clean-up and many said from a posting on Facebook. Some of the young men were connected to the Church of Later Day Saints.
From the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible – HEBREWS Chapter 10: Verses 24 and 25: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
After an hour and 15 minutes I was pooped and went to say good-bye to Roger Gitlin. “Hold it,” he said; “everybody get in front of the dumpster and let’s get a picture.”
From Bob Berkowitz;
“Supervisor Gitlin and I want to thank these groups for an amazing clean up of the property on the East side of Hwy 101 South along South Beach; The Amateur Radio Club, the Inter Faith Council, Team Wal-Mart, Team Home Depot, The Surfriders, Crescent Act Hardware, Recology, and the “Take a Bite Out Of Blight Group.” This could have not been accomplished without these community minded individuals who said, “We want to live in a cleaner community and we’re willing to do the things that will make it happen.”
These are the people that signed-in: Craig S Bradford, Bonnie K Brown, Gregg Cetnar, Jim and Sheila Coop, Eileen Cooper, Peter Davis, Amy Durham, Angie Gitlin, Sherey Gould, Annemarie Hazelton, Ashley Herrera, Keith Jones, Kerry Killian, Matt Kime, Autumn Lee, Nissa Levy, Jacob Lord, Dave Mason, Ron and Debbie Mayhue, James Mierkey, Kerri and Grant Morris, Colleen Murray, Rhyn Noll, Jim Norton Jr., Richard Pederson, Michael Poole, Ginny Restad, Karna Robb, Evelyn Santillan, Randy Scott, David Short, David and Marilyn Slagle, Jake and Patricia Smith, Elmer Steeves, Brighton Stromberg, Gine Van Wormer, Phillip Wadsworth, Joel Wallen, Donna Westfall, Richard White and Jaime Yarbrough.
At 8:30 am this morning the place looked like this:
Absent from the clean-up were 3 supervisors: Lori Cowan, Chris Howard and Gerry Hemmingsen.
Active in the clean-up were candidates for District 3 and 4; Jake Smith and Dave Mason.
Let’s face it, cleaning up garbage is a no-brainer. Just show up and pick up trash. Well, let’s give credit where credit is due. Roger Gitlin coordinated with Fish & Wildlife, Recology to get bins, Home Depot and WalMart for supplies and volunteers and more. But, for a moment just try to imagine what could be accomplished with issues like Last Chance Grade, Sutter Coast Hospital, Homeless, Economic Development,Un-maintained roads, and of course Blight if four Supervisors were working together instead of three battling with and denigrating the other two.
It’s time for a change. Time to clear out and clean up our Board of Supervisors so we can turn our jewel of a town into something special.
Nice to the see the Triplicate actually mention one of the volunteers by name. I was worried there they would refuse to put Donna’s name anywhere in their paper for anything positive. 🙂
Thank you everyone who donated time, money and resources to make this happen. Now to figure out how to deal with the idiots who keep trashing such a pretty town. Not sure how that can be solved.
Thank you to the group, and especially Roger Gitlin for doing this. It would be great if there was a way to get on a list to be notified of these cleanups in advance. If possible, please make that happen.
While some of the local politicians ‘talk’, others are involved. This is yet another example of what some bring to our community and others do not bring.