On April 13, I posted on Facebook a photo of a protective face mask that I found discarded in my neighborhood on the West Hill.
While I had never found one of these before, I noted that: “Rarely does a day go by when we don’t find something someone has discarded in our front yard or a neighbor’s, often cans and bottles, cigarette packs, smokeless tobacco containers, fast food bags and containers, scratch-off lottery tickets and candy wrappers.”
promoMy point was that: “Our neighborhood on the West Hill in Masury is a dumping ground.”
That post was heavily commented on by people who live on the West Hill, and elsewhere in the township, some noting that they have the same experience in the yards, ditches and road sides where they live.
Township trustees are hoping to do something about that with help from neighborhood residents. The trustees have applied for a $2,500 Go Green grant from Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District.
If the grant is awarded, the trustees would set up four cleanups in these neighborhoods:
Valley View.
West Hill north of Warren Sharon Road.
West Hill south of Warren Sharon Road
Stevenson Heights.
“We tried to pick neighborhoods that are closer together, densely populated, that are traveled,” said Trustee Dan Suttles.
People would be invited to come out on those days and pick up the trash that befouls the neighborhoods.
The money would be used to buy vests for cleanup participants to wear; gloves; bags; grabbers; and pointed sticks for picking up paper litter, and rental of a 30-yard rolloff container.
The full bags would be placed along the road and township road department workers would collect them within a day or two, Suttles said.
If it’s practical, recyclable materials would be segregated to limit the amount of material taken to a landfill, he said.