Volunteer cleanup spruces town ahead of Fall Festival

Anyone driving around the community between 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturday was bound to see groups of individuals, trash bags in hand picking up trash, as the annual Pahrump Town Clean-up returned this year.

The event, organized by NyE Communities Coalition, drew in several dozen volunteers, who picked up more than a 1,000 pounds of trash.

Coordinator Mary Duff said more than 60 volunteers offered their respective labor to spruce up the community just days before the Pahrump Fall Festival returns to town.

The town clean-up is put on by the town of Pahrump and the Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Committee.

"The main concentration was the center of town because we really want to beautify the area for the fall festival, which brings in so many tourists and local residents," she said. "We just want to show Pahrump in a very good light so people will want to come back."

Duff noted that holding the event would have been a daunting task this year if it were not for the efforts of those who provided assistance with donations and supplies.

"We received a lot of donations from area businesses within the community, including BLM and Home Depot, who provided the trash bags," she said. "We also had water bottle donations from Desert View Hospital, Valley Electric Association and Home Depot, who also purchased disposable gloves."

Harker also said at least one of the kids made a rewarding discovery while filling their trash bag.

"Half the group started by Irene's Casino and the other half started near the school district office and now we're here on Dahlia not far from the Salvation Army Thrift Store," she said. "One of us out here found $5 while picking up trash, it was a little wet but hey, they will take it."

In the same group, Sierra McKillips noted there didn't appear to be a shortage of the variety of refuge lining the roadways on Saturday.

"It's been a nice day out here and we were actually able to fill up to 30 bags of trash," she said. "It's been fun and I think the kids really enjoyed it plus it's great exercise. We actually walked past a dead cat and one of the kids found a grocery bag full of spaghetti and other canned food items."

The command post for the event was the parking lot of the Bob Ruud Community Center where organizers made their plan of attack around the community.

Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Committee Chairman John Pawlak said all the stars aligned this year to make for a great town clean-up, when compared to years past.

"There was very little windy conditions, the sun was out and it wasn't too hot," he said. "We had plenty of water for the volunteers. We got trash bags donated from Home Depot and water donated from the hospital."

Additionally, Pawlak said the group put their focus on different parts of town, chiefly, the area near the site of the fall festival.

He noted that some people have a tendency to throw trash in places where there's a lot of brush because they think if it's out of sight, it's out of mind.

"We zeroed in on the areas adjacent to Petrack Park where the fall festival is going to be this week," he said. "We also had four areas for the large dumpsters that were brought out. There was one at the community center and Simpkins Park. There was another one near Lakeside Casino and the other was at the corner of Homestead and Gamebird roads."

Trash aside, Pawlak said at least one group was organized for a specific task on Saturday.

Joe's Sanitation was also involved with helping out collecting the shopping carts around town and some of them were in some places that it made you wonder, how did they get there?" he said. "They were able to collect close to 40 shopping carts."

Pawlak also noted the town cleanup regularly took place earlier in the year, but organizers recently decided to move it to late summer.

"This event culminates up to the start of the fall festival," he said. "We have done this during the spring in past years, but it was hard to get volunteers to participate so we were able to generate a lot of volunteers due to the pride behind the Pahrump Fall Festival. It was a wonderful day and we had participation from all ages so we were very, very pleased."

Pawlak made sure to note that local organizations such as Pahrump Valley High's Key Club, along with the Junior ROTC program played a big role in the clean-up effort.

"We also had some of the ambassadors from Valley Electric Association so it was a mix of young and old and we were really glad everything worked out quite well. "The volunteers did it out of the goodness of their hearts and they didn't expect anything in return so we really appreciate that."