Date: Fri 07-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Lose-the-litter-Lions-Club

Full Text:

Newtown's Roadsides Get A Spring Cleaning

(with photos)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The streets of Newtown are a little bit cleaner this week following this past

Sunday's Lose-the-Litter Day.

The ninth annual townwide spring cleaning proved to be a success. Though crews

were still collecting the trash at press time, Public Works Director Fred

Hurley estimated that between 8 and 12 tons would ultimately be collected.

Town workers spent the early part of the week picking up huge piles of garbage

bags, tires and other junk at several drop-off spots around town. An estimated

109 families and groups took part in the event, which was sponsored by the

Lions Club for the fourth year in a row.

"That's a conservative guess. There were others who signed up beforehand who

didn't show up at the middle school to get bags. They may have just gone out

on their own," noted Lose-the-Litter chairman Gordon Williams, who spent much

of Sunday in front of the middle school handing out garbage bags.

Mr Williams theorized that Sunday's clear blue skies and warm weather helped

bring out the estimated 300 to 500 environmentally conscious volunteers. More

than 70 roads were cleaned.

"I felt really terrific about it. People's attitudes were so good," said Mr

Williams, who was assisted at the Lose-the-Litter booth by Lions members Tom

Evagash and Bill Honan.

Some groups made a party out of it -- cleaning litter in the morning and

having a picnic in the afternoon.

Those groups taking part in the clean-up were the Lutheran Senior High School

Fellowship, Weeblos Pack 70, Dens 3 and 10, Janice Solheims's Brownie Troop,

Boy Scout Troop 270, Pack 470, Den 1, and the Newtown Garden Club.

Trying to put a little fun into the arduous civic project, the Lion's Club put

out four gold cans along four unnamed Newtown roads Sunday morning -- a sort

of scavenger hunt. So far, only two cans have been found, one on Brushy Hill

Road and the other on Boggs Hill Road. The finders of the cans win free

tickets to the Edmond Town Hall movie theater.

The spring clean-up was started in 1991 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.