Volunteers join cleanup effort

If the Alle-Kiski Valley looks a little bit cleaner this weekend, thank the volunteers who participated in the Great PA Cleanup.

There were three local projects on Saturday as part of the statewide effort to beautify roads, rivers, parks and neighborhoods. Although the Great PA Cleanup extends from March 1 to May 3 many of the organizations involved scheduled events for April 22 and April 29, which are Earth Day and Arbor Day.

Locally on Saturday, volunteers combed the banks of Plum Creek to remove some impromptu landfills, collected litter from the streets of Natrona and hauled away tons of garbage in Vandergrift.

In Plum, members of the Plum Creek Watershed Association cleared tires, car parts, bottles and cans from spots near the creek on Elicker and Browntown roads.

Although volunteers made a good dent in the garbage, they were only able to pull a fraction of the trash from creek banks, according to watershed association member Patty Heinbaugh.

"What we got out is nothing," she said. "What are people thinking, throwing stuff over the hill? That it's just going to disappear?"

Heinbaugh said she hopes by cleaning along the creek every year, people will be less likely to continue throwing trash into the illegal dumps. Perhaps they'll even be embarrassed that others are cleaning up after them, she said.

"If we can make people aware of illegal dumping, it might help motivate them to keep it clean," Heinbaugh said.

Cleanup efforts in Vandergrift and East Vandergrift were focused more on helping residents empty their basements, garages, yards and alleys of unwanted junk that is difficult to dispose of -- the type of stuff that can end up in illegal landfills like those in Plum.

The Vandergrift Improvement Program, a borough revitalization group, organized a spring cleanup day, providing large Dumpsters in a Columbia Avenue parking lot. Residents could bring large appliances, tires, furniture and more to be hauled away by McCutcheon Enterprises.

The stream of dump trucks, pickups and vans bringing garbage to the collection area was as steady as the persistent rain that soaked volunteers throughout the morning.

"It's been a nonstop line of traffic," said VIP member Wayne Teeple. "The rain's been the only bad thing about the day."

Organizer Brian Pomfret estimated they would use 10 Dumpsters, each containing six to eight tons of garbage.

Volunteers, including teenagers from Adelphoi Village's Leonard C. Miller Home in Apollo and others working off community service hours, assisted people in unloading their trash. Borough workers collected more than a dozen truckloads of garbage from the elderly and other residents unable to transport items.

Teeple and Pomfret said some of the more unusual items they collected include a hot tub and two refrigerators filled with spoiled food.

Vandergrift Mayor Lou Purificato said the event not only would spruce up local homes and businesses, but also would save the borough money. He said it usually costs the borough $35 to $40 per ton to take trash to a landfill.

Many landfills also were waiving the fees on Saturday for organizations participating in the statewide event.

"If you walked in half the cellars in town, people probably wouldn't recognize them," Purificato said.

Bill Godfrey, spokesman for the Natrona Comes Together revitalization group, said Natrona is similarly cleaned out.

"We literally went up and down every street," Godfrey said. "We even picked up cigarette butts.

"Natrona has never been cleaner," he said.

A group of about 30 volunteers picked up litter along the streets and river banks and also planted a few trees.

"Natrona is lacking trees," Godfrey said. "The more green we can get, the better."