The homeless camp behind the Pahrump Nugget was ground zero for a neighborhood cleanup project over the weekend.
Organizer Deanna O’Donnell said her project is now generating the interest of the Pahrump Chamber of Commerce and other business entities in town.
“Pahrump Valley Disposal dropped off two large dumpsters which were paid for by District 36 Assemblyman James Oscarson,” she said. “This is the second cleanup that we’ve had so far and officially, we are now part of the chamber of commerce. We will be doing quarterly cleanups and our next one will be in May but we haven’t picked the exact date yet.”
The effort began last month, just days before the annual Pahrump Balloon Festival, between Highway 372 and Highway 160, from Dahlia Street to Blagg Road.
O’Donnell said Pahrump’s sole middle school also took part in the cleanup, along with two deputies from the Nye County Sheriff’s Office Drug Awareness Resistance and Education (DARE) program, the Kiwanis Club and Pahrump Valley Disposal.
Theresa Incopero, owner of Pahrump’s Cancer Victim’s Thrift Store, purchased pizzas for the group.
“The kids from Rosemary Clarke Middle School and teacher Robert Nielsen, along with two DARE officers participated. Reva Braun from the Kiwanis Club and Alina Smith from Pahrump Valley Disposal,” she said. “We were hoping for about 80 kids but I think we ended up with around 60 or 70, which was pretty good. We had kids and adults. The trash bags were donated by Desert View Hospital.”
O’Donnell also noted that the adults and students were instructed on what, and what not to pick up, for purposes of safety.
“All of the participants were given durable, industrial-strength gloves for the kids to use. We asked them not to pick up needles and other things with their bare hands.”
O’Donnell said aside from the usual trash, like cans, bottles and discarded Styrofoam containers, there were countless plastic shopping bags strewn about containing a literal biohazard.
“There were some items that were extremely disgusting,” she said. “We’re talking about human excrement in plastic bags all over the desert in the homeless camp. They were actually using the bathroom in the plastic bags, tying them up and just disposing of them out in the desert. I actually picked one up that was clear and you could see the disgusting contents inside. We made sure that the kids didn’t get anywhere near those types of items that we were finding and disposing of.”
Following the cleanup project, Jason Coblentz said he felt transformed from the process.
“It was kind of a rush actually, because we did it so fast,” he said. “If we continue with a really concentrated effort with additional volunteers, we can indeed make a difference. When we went out there it was really shocking to see how bad it had really gotten, and just in a matter of a few hours with the volunteers, we were able to clean up a lot of trash and haul it out of there.”
Additionally, O’Donnell said an effort is underway to have several porta-potties available for the homeless to use.
“Deanna Foster from the local Pay It Forward group really wants to get some of those out there,” she said. “There’s been some issues as to who owns the land and whether we are allowed to put anything like that on BLM land. Some of that land is BLM owned and some of it is privately owned and that’s the issue we are facing.”
O’Donnell said regular brainstorming meetings will take place on Thursdays at the Pahrump Chamber of Commerce office.
“We are meeting there because this effort is not related to the television station,” she said. “We hope to continue meeting at least every couple of weeks to draw up a plan of action and anyone who wants to volunteer or provide donations of any kind, can call 775-537-0250, which is the hotline. We are also looking to put together a neighborhood cleanup Facebook page.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes