City Clean-Up into Day Two

There’s a lot of junk and unused items out there, so much so, that the City of Lamar work crews started their Monday with the second round of refuse round-up. Volunteers and city workers spent most of this past Saturday, April 28^th from 7am to 4pm collecting mounds of trash, tree limbs, debris, non-working chairs, sofas, tires and bathtubs and carting it away.

Some concerned citizens whose refuse had not been collected began their calls on Monday morning to the City of Lamar offices and even to the Lamar Chamber of Commerce in the assumption that organization was behind the spring clean-up.

Nothing to fear, as the crews and loaders were working their way towards South 14^th Street, one of the last areas in the city to be reached, bringing the useful spring event to a close.  As was noted in the past and this most recent clean-up, there were entrepreneurs scouring and surveying the neighborhoods for their own particular treasures in other people’s piles of trash.

Another annual collection event was underway this past Saturday, the nationally organized, prescription take-back day. Volunteers were on hand on the western side of the Lamar Fire and Ambulance Department, collecting the unused or expired drugs from area residents.

Michelle Slough from the Lamar Police Department reported that the net weight of collected pills (no containers) was 22 pounds that had been sent off to the Drug Enforcement Agency. She noted that this was a yearlong effort, which included April 28^th.  Citizens are allowed to drop off at the police department Monday through Friday all year long. This total weight includes Saturday as well as anything taken in after the last collections from the October 2017 take back day were shipped out. She noted it was still a significant amount.

She noted, “The DEA will post totals in the next few weeks of what was taken in on Saturday and they will also include the grand totals since the program began. It’s interesting because it’s in the tons.”  It has been strongly recommended that any unused or expired prescription medications not be tossed away to remain in landfills or down the kitchen or bathroom sink for potential contamination.

By Russ Baldwin