City Cleanup Saturday

I can tell in moving around the city that we didn't have the huge turnout for the community cleanup we needed, but some areas look a lot better than they did before. When I was on my way to Scotland Park to register our group, I passed a group of about 50 men who were cleaning up the horrible mess under the overhead at the Kell intersection. If there was an area that needed to be cleaned up, that was it. A big thank you to whatever group tackled that area. The Texas Master Naturalists had Lucy Park. The city had already done a very good job of cleaning up the main area of the park due to a community activity that afternoon, so our group concentrated on the rear, wooded area of the park. We spent nearly 3 hours and hauled out a lot of trash and some aluminum cans for recycling. We didn't get it as neat as we would have liked, but other projects had us leaving shortly after noon, so we had to stop. Many thanks to the Keep Wichita Falls Beautiful organization for sponsoring this event and to the many volunteers that came out that day.

Follow up on Some Previous Posts

The City Cleanup was Saturday. I didn't have a chance to go by Lucy Park as I was at Wild Bird Rescue, so I am not sure how many people were there. I can see a few places around the city where it appears there was some work done, but there are still plenty of places that are heavily littered. Please, if you are out for a walk, try to carry a bag and pick up what you see (I don't do this enough myself).

I went to the pubic hearing on the Region B draft water plan last night. I have read the plan and I asked a question at the hearing last night to be sure what I thought the plan said in an area was in fact the case and will be writing up my comments soon. I'll post the content on this blog in case others find them helpful.

City-wide Spring Cleaning

In my next column in the Biz to Biz magazine published by the Times Record News I tell the story of the first day my son and I arrived in Wichita Falls. After the green, hilly environment of Virginia, the plains were an adjustment. However, it wasn't the flat, browner prairie landscape that led to my son saying, "This is the ugliest town I've ever seen." It was the trash spread up and down the highway as we entered the city.

Fortunately, with time came an appreciation of the more subdued landscape, and generally the city has done a reasonable job of improving its appearance. Trash is still a problem.

At one time, Wichtia Falls had a Clean City Commission. The annual city-wide cleanup was one event that fell to the wayside when the Commission was disbanded. If you look around the city now, there are some very unsightly areas, full of trash and junk. I am going to go around the city and take pictures over the next few days, but I promise you, Wichita Falls is not ready for company.

Spring cleaning used to be a time honored tradition. Keep Wichita Falls Beautiful and the Clean and Green Committee are working together to spruce up the city in conjunction with the Don't Mess with Texas Trash-Off on Saturday, April 10. They're encouraging homeowners, business owners, civic groups, and families to get involved in a community Spring Cleaning.

Volunteers should meet at the Lucy Land Park Pavilion at 9:00 AM on Saturday, April 10 for a photo shoot for Keep Texas Beautiful. Keep Wichita Falls Beautiful will provide trash bags to volunteers.

To sign up go to http://volunteerwf.org or email keepwfbeautiful@yahoo.com.

Take trash collected to the City Transfer Station at 3200 Lawrence Road. There is no charge for your "deposits."

If you can't participate on the 10th, make it a point to clean up trash where you find it over the next two weeks. Clean up your yards and workplaces and take a trash bag with you when you walk. Together we can make a difference.