Newtown’s Roadsides Get a Spring Cleaning

The roadsides of Newtown were cleaner this week following Sunday’s 15th annual Lose the Litter Day.

Newtown Lions Club member Jerome Mayer, who chaired Lose the Litter Day, said about 132 volunteers signed up at the middle school to help with the cleanup, but others probably also pitched in.

A big pile of trash including a sofa, plywood, and tires, was delivered to the highway garage afterwards in the trunks of cars and on the beds of pickup trucks.

“There was a lot of big stuff that people couldn’t bring, so we will be going out with a loader to get it this week,” Public Works Director Fred Hurley said. “Some people didn’t realize they were supposed to bring the junk here and left it bagged on the side of the road, so we got that, too.”

When it was weighed, there was nearly a half-ton of litter collected including 760 pounds of metal.

The cleanup brought out many scout troops and some families, like the Stokes family of Osborne Hill Road, who take part every year, filling their hatchback with bulging garbage bags as they moved it along the road.

Included in the litter were four gold cans that the Lions Club left in various spots to reward the finders with free tickets to the Edmond Town Hall movie theater. So far only one can has been redeemed. That one was found on Oakview Drive by Bee editor Shannon Hicks.

Lose the Litter has been sponsored by the Lions Club since 1995.

The spring cleanup was started in the early 1990s 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 effort.