Plains cleanup day Saturday

The Plains Beautification Committee is looking forward to having another successful cleanup day, which will take place Saturday.

This will be the first Fall Cleanup Day conducted by town volunteers. The Spring Cleanup Day was such a success that organizers decided to hold one in the spring and one in the fall each year.

Committee member Garrett Boon said they have about a dozen volunteers and around 15 projects, but they welcome more of each. “We are actively going door to door looking for more volunteers and projects,” said Boon. The big difference in the two projects is that the fall one will concentrate on yard work. “Perfect projects include weeding, mowing, weed whacking, hauling yard debris (branches, weeds, walnuts, fallen apples or other fruit, etc), trimming bushes and things like that,” said Boon, who also serves as a town council member. “We are only focusing on yard projects and yard debris. We are not planning on cleaning or transporting household trash, appliances or tires this time,” he said, adding that volunteers are asked to bring their own yard tools, like mowers, weed eaters, clippers, gloves and pickup trucks, if they have them. “If they don't have anything, they can join with others who do. We will have some tools to share,” said Boon.

The Plains Beautification Committee had decided to have a general cleanup day on the third Saturday of May and the fall yard day on the third Saturday of September. The committee is presently comprised of Boon, Lana Dicken, Scott Johnson, Tim Kinsinger and Anita Marsh. They had around 40 volunteers and nearly two dozen residents requesting help. The town established a website link for people to sign up and get more information at http://www.townofplains.com/beautification.

Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday at the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool Park to go over the projects. The event will officially end at 4 p.m., but volunteers can come for as long or short as they are able, according to Boon. They will be serving a free lunch at the park for the volunteers.

“The purpose of the event is to strengthen our community by getting people working together and tidying up around town. Families and kids are welcome to join. We want to get work done but also have a good time doing it,” said Boon.

Businesses around town have donated various items for the project, including trash bags and gloves from Studs and Gambles, bottled water from Rehbein Ford, lunch from McGowan Grocery and 406 Chuck Wagon, a monetary donation from Blackfoot Communications and the county dump waived the yard debris fee. In addition, MT West Dentist allowed the committee to hang its sign on their fence for visibility purposes. Boon said they are still working on getting a dump trailer to have at the pool park to collect yard waste to cut down on traffic at the dump.

“The beautification committee is very excited to see everything start to come together and we are looking forward to a fun and productive day on the 16th,” said Boon.