Hoehmtown Happenings, By Supervisor George Hoehmann: Spring Cleanup

The popular saying “April showers bring May flowers” feels particularly appropriate this year, as we have certainly had what seems like way more than our fair share of rain over the past several weeks. Even though we may not necessarily enjoy it, the rain serves as a reminder that the spring season is upon us. And when I think of all the wonderful aspects of the season- warmer temperatures, flowers starting to bud, and Little League baseball, I also think about Keep Rockland Beautiful’s annual Great American Cleanup event. It’s a terrific spring tradition where residents work together and make an immediate and powerful impact on our community by picking up litter throughout the town.

The event consists of a series of individual, localized clean-up efforts within Clarkstown. The organization behind it all is Keep Rockland Beautiful, a treasure in our local not-for-profit community that does tremendous volunteer work in helping to keep our community clean. Last year, over 1,500 residents volunteered their time and efforts to make a difference in the ongoing battle against litter, picking up over 1,600 bags of trash in addition to recyclables and over 100 tires. This equates to roughly over 20 tons of trash that was removed from our parks, roadsides, streams, lakes, and neighborhoods.

Each year, volunteers of all ages and various backgrounds from all over Rockland County participate in the cleanup. It’s truly an event where the entire community comes together. Youth groups such as the Clarkstown South HS Environmental Action Club, Teen Leadership Rockland, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have contributed. Community service based organizations such as Rotary and the Lions Club have pitched in. Local businesses, and municipalities have served as sponsors and volunteers.

And once all the trash is collected, the Town of Clarkstown Highway Department works along with other municipal highway departments and Rockland Green to haul it all away. It’s truly heartwarming to see the “all hands on deck” cooperation that makes a huge difference in the ongoing effort to keep our communities clean and beautiful.

It’s also sad that littering continues to be such a rampant problem across the country and even here in Clarkstown. The bare landscape of winter exposes much of the trash that is hidden by vegetation for much of the year. Typically, my office sees an uptick in litter complaints and a visible increase in accumulation of litter at the end of every winter. The Town does its best to identify and prosecute offenders, but that is easier said than done. And while the bad news is that I don’t expect to see the scourge of littering to end anytime soon, there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to volunteer a little bit of time for a very impactful return.

Keep Rockland Beautiful has the following clean-up events scheduled in Clarkstown:

Clarkstown Cleanup

April 14th – Kennedy Dells Park, 9am

April 20th – New Hempstead Presbyterian Church, 9am

April 20th – Congers Train Station Park, 9am

April 21st – Rockland Farm Alliance, 10am

April 27th – Dr. Davies Farm parking lot, 9am (sponsored by Senator Weber)

May 4th – West Nyack Hamlet Park, 9:30am

May 4th – Grace Baptist Church parking lot, 10am

May 11th – Central Nyack Community Center, 9am

May 18th – Nanuet Train Station, 9am

Please consider volunteering some time to join one of these events and keep in mind you can schedule your own event with co-workers, friends, family, scouts, churches, and synagogues. All you need to do is register at www.keeprocklandbeautiful.org.

It’s our community, let’s help keep it clean!