Volunteers, seniors needed for Cleanup Week in Plum
Mar. 9—Plum officials are looking for volunteers and seniors to join in April's Cleanup Week.
It's an expansion of the borough's annual Cleanup Day to celebrate Earth Day.
This year marks the fifth effort. Last year's cleanup was canceled due to the pandemic.
Cleanup Week is April 19-24 with the last day, a Saturday, being the big trash pickup.
The days leading up to it will be spent with volunteers helping residents ages 65 and up.
"We're looking, as we always do, for church groups, scouts, clubs, homeowners associations — any groups — to come out and help us," assistant borough manager Dave Soboslay said. "We try to help as many people as we can."
There are forms for both volunteers and seniors on the borough website, as well as hard-copy registration at the borough building, 4575 New Texas Road.
"We're asking for volunteers that would spend one to two hours at a house cutting grass, raking, pruning, trimming hedges," Soboslay said. "I'm confident we're going to see a lot of people sign up to help our seniors. We could have all the seniors in the world sign up, but, without the volunteers, we can't provide that service."
Organizers would match up volunteers with seniors, and they can coordinate the best times during the week to lend a hand. Those volunteers are asked to use their own equipment and supplies.
People do not need to sign up for senior assistance to participate in the main event at the end of the week.
Gloves and bags, as well as light refreshments, will be provided on April 24.
Volunteers that day can meet at the public works building along Old Mine Road at 8 a.m. for supplies and assignments. Cleanup will be from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
"It's not just people going out, it's a coordinated effort," Soboslay said. "We try to assign people certain roadways so we don't have 10 groups coming onto one roadway. It's been very successful in the past and, every year, we've seen the volunteer numbers grow. It's a great event to see everyone come out and help cleanup the community."
Councilman Mike Doyle pledged to raise money to provide volunteers T-shirts for their efforts.
Public works crews will pickup the trash bags the following Monday.
Deadline for seniors to register is March 31. Deadline for volunteer registration is April 12.
Mayor Harry Schlegel recommended Repp and Elicker roads as areas in need of attention.
He also suggested people who see others dump their trash in town to contact the borough.
"If you see a car leaving and notice a new pile of trash there, call me," he said. "Get the license number and call me because we're not going to tolerate that. We keep our borough clean. We clean it up. We have the volunteers out there. For people from outside of our community who are coming here and dumping their trash, that's not going to be tolerated."
More information about Cleanup Week is available at plumboro.com or call 412-795-6800.
Michael DiVittorio is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-871-2367, mdivittorio@triblive.com or via Twitter .
