Neighbors get together to toss trash

Rick Scott knew if he put the trash bins out they would come.

His dream was realized Saturday morning. Edgecliff community members driving trucks and trailers lined up behind Pratt Elementary School with loads of trash. At one point, vehicles were lined up around the block.

Scott’s goal: to offer residents the opportunity to clean up the neighborhood. The incentive for showing up: the price to dump refuse was free.

The effort was courtesy of the Edgecliff community’s Weed and Seed grant, which aims to flush out the bad things in a community – such as drug dealers and trash – and refresh it with positive community programs. This is the third year the area has received the Weed and Seed grant, which was about $225,000, from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Scott, the director of the program, initiated the cleanup that first year.

“This is a really good thing,” said Denise McEuen. “It has really cleaned up our neighborhood.”

The free program was open to those living east of Havana, west of Argonne, south of Broadway and north of 12th. Volunteers asked for proof of residency from those who arrived during the nine-hour event.

McEuen, who is also a volunteer with the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort, known as SCOPE, described the impoverished area before the cleanup started. She said many homes were littered with dead cars and appliances, trash bags, tires and yard debris.

She pointed to a modest house across from the elementary school that three years ago looked like it needed to be condemned. Saturday nary a piece of trash could be seen in the yard.

“Most of the people in the area couldn’t afford a dumping fee,” she said. “This is great. I wish more neighborhoods did it.”

The last time a similar project was done more than a year ago, volunteers took in 120 tons of waste and 10 tons of recyclable items, Scott said. Sixteen 25-cubic-yard bins were hauled to the dump this year. A final weight wasn’t available Saturday.

Kitchen bay windows, lawn mowers, mattresses, bathroom sinks, bird cages, clothes and La-Z-Boys were among the items piled into the giant blue trash bins.

“You name it, we got it in there,” said Clyde Kallenbach, 34, of the trailer load of trash he was dumping. “This is great. We missed it last year, and we weren’t going to miss it this year.”

The most interesting piece of trash, at least to one man, was a 1947 Packard parts book, Scott said. One of the SCOPE volunteers, an old-car collector, decided it might be of use.

Edgecliff community residents also brought tree limbs, bush trimmings, wood and grass.

Rich Corn, 43, was using the free dump day for the first time. His truck bed was loaded with yard debris.

“If they keep doing this every year,” he said, “it will keep the area clean.”