Date: Fri 02-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Lose-the-Litter-

Full Text:

Newtown's Annual Spring Clean-Up

w/cuts

GENNEWS

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The streets of Newtown are a little bit cleaner this week following last

Sunday's Lose-the-Litter Day.

The seventh annual townwide spring cleaning proved to be a success. Though

crews were still collecting the trash at press time, Public Works Director

Fred Hurley estimated that between 10 and 11 tons will ultimately be

collected. Town workers spent the early part of the week picking up huge piles

of garbage bags, tires and other junk at several drop-off spots around town,

including the five volunteer fire departments and New Lebbon Road, a

well-known illegal dumping ground.

"I think it went well. The streets look much cleaner this week," noted

Lose-the-Litter chairman Gordon Williams, who spent much of Sunday in front of

the middle school handing out garbage bags.

Mr Williams figured Sunday's clear blue skies and warm weather helped bring

out the estimated 300 to 500 environmentally conscious volunteers.

This year's event was sponsored by the Newtown Lion's Club, whose members

assisted in the actual cleaning, as well as the preliminary work, which

included encouraging residents to take on the cause of a cleaner town. Last

year, the Lion's Club took on the task of picking up litter on Boggs Hill Road

and covered about 60 percent of the road. On Sunday, more manpower enabled the

club to clean up all of the nearly four miles of road.

On Mile Hill Road, Newtown Bible Baptist Church pastor Stephen Plodinec and

his three children - Stephen, 6, Timothy, 5, and Kimberly, 4 - were seen

filling their bags with garbage.

Newtown Middle School has taken on a cleaner look since Boy Scout Troop 70

freed it of its overabundance of garbage cans, cigarette butts and potato chip

bags. A youth group from Christ the King Lutheran Church headed clean-up work

at Dickinson Park, while a couple cleaned up Treadwell.

Trying to put a little fun into the arduous civic project, the Lion's Club put

out four gold cans along four unnamed Newtown roads Sunday morning - a sort of

scavenger hunt. So far, two cans have been found, one on Brushy Hill Road and

the other on Boggs Hill Road. The finders of the cans win free tickets to the

Edmond Town Hall movie theater.

The spring clean-up was started in 1991 by the Newtown Environmental Action

team (NEAT), which was originally founded by resident Judy Holmes to promote

recycling and environmental awareness. Lose-the-Litter Day was an outgrowth of

that, Mrs Holmes said.

"It's grown every year. It's become something that people expect and look

forward to do," she said.

The Legislative Council's ordinance committee, chaired by Bill Brimmer, is now

considering the adoption of an anti-litter ordinance in an effort to stop

illegal dumping on Newtown roads. The ordinance, as proposed by residents,

would create stiffer penalties than the state's current punishment/fines for

violations.