“You feel like you’re in a rose garden,” said Becky Weller while picking up a piece of trash near the Sacony Creek on Sunday, March 22.
Volunteers from the Kutztown Environmental Advisory Commission and Kutztown University dodged trees and thorny bushes to clean trash along the creek on Constitution Boulevard for one of a few annual cleanups.
The cleanup’s main objective is clearing trash from the creek that blows over from the shopping center across the street, according to Weller, community education chair for the Kutztown EAC. She said that a lot of the trash had gotten buried by the snow. She said that the riparian buffer of vegetation does not prevent all of the trash from getting into the creek and is concerned about plants and animals such as ducks and muskrats.
Tara Erney, secretary for the Kutztown EAC, believes a lot of the trash comes from not only trash blowing over but people throwing things out of their cars while driving by.
Weller found a variety of items along the creek, including a sign from CVS and full trash bags that blew over, but she is “baffled” to see items like two liter plastic bottles.
“I don’t see any excuse for that being here. There are trash bins over there,” she said, indicating the shopping center.
Shireen Masssoudi recently became KU representative to the Kutztown EAC and volunteered for a Sacony Creek cleanup for the first time.
“I didn’t realize how much trash is here until I got here today,” she said.
Weller has been on the commission for about a year and this is the first cleanup she planned. The EAC had planned one for after Christmas, but it got cancelled because of a long period of snow and freezing temperatures.
Different local organizations hold cleanups of the Sacony Creek, too. Fellow EAC member and KU Biology Professor Todd Underwood helps plan cleanups for university and local groups. The Kutztown Community Partnership holds one, as well as Kutztown Middle School at the end of the school year.
The EAC hopes to coordinate a cleanup every month, although they are cautious about summer months, when most people vacation.
Weller was pleased with the number of Kutztown University students that volunteered for the cleanup.
“There’s quite a future ahead of us if a lot of young people are involved,” she said.
KU student Xihlovo Mabunda helped with a cleanup during the university’s Homecoming weekend and volunteered again. She believes that others would want to help in future cleanups if they knew about the creek’s condition.
“I thought there was going to be a few papers, a few cans hidden under the snow. I really didn’t think there was going to be this much,” she said, referring to the amount of trash near the creek.
Colin Quinn said that his biology professor, Gregory Setliff requires six hours of community service relating to the environment. Students such as Quinn chose the cleanup as a way to earn hours.
Fellow student Jen Hill volunteered for hours, but said that she would like to participate again.
“Just walking by, I would’ve never imagined that we’d have this many bags,” she said, standing near a pile of seven filled trash bags that her group of four collected in one area.
In addition to Sacony Creek cleanups, the EAC works on recommending plans and programs as well as preparing borough reports. Last year, its main product was a noise ordinance requested by the borough. Weller is writing up grants to get more community education programs. She hopes that the EAC will hold a Sacony Trail Day in June. Erney wrote two grants for recyclable bins, which could affect trash ending up near the creek.
“It would be awesome if this town could go plastic-free and Styrofoam-free,” Weller said. “It would certainly prevent a lot of what we’re cleaning up here.”
Erney said that the EAC purchased signs to mark the riparian buffer along Sacony Creek. She hopes that the signs will help block some trash that ends up near the creek. Erney estimates that the signs will be installed in the spring or summer.
The EAC holds meetings on the first Monday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Kutztown Municipal Building.
