McMinnville officials have given permission to allocate city resources for the ninth annual River Ride and Cleanup by McMinnville Breakfast Rotary and Friends of Our Rivers on July 16.
According to Public Works assistant director Brad Hennessee, he was contacted by Rotary Club member Neal Cox about the city’s participation this year.
“Neal Cox called me last week and asked if the city could provide the trash pickup on Monday at the collection sites after the cleanup on Saturday,” said Hennessee. “Last year, Bridgestone hired a tire recycler to pick up all the tires. The city had to do a pretty extensive cleanup on the tires before the recycler would take them. I told Mr. Cox that I had to run this by committee and get approval because I simply didn’t have the authority to approve it.”
On the Streets and Sanitation Committee are members Ryle Chastain, Jimmy Bonner and Steve Harvey.
“Public Works supports this effort and I didn’t have a problem with it,” said Hennessee. “Last year, it took three employees about an eight-hour day to clean the tires so the recycler would take them. We spent about half a day on the trash cleanup sites. That’s actually going out, picking it up and bringing it back to the city transfer station.”
River Ride and Cleanup begins at Pepper Branch Park. Last year, volunteers pulled 7 tons of trash from Hickory Creek and the Barren Fork and Collins rivers. About 13 miles of waterways were cleaned. Among the items were 187 tires that had to be extensively cleaned by the city prior to recycling. Each year, additional miles of the river are added to the cleanup effort.
Committee members unanimously approved the request for the city’s participation.
For more information or to volunteer for this year’s cleanup effort, contact Cox at 235-5660 or Rachel Killebrew at 808-3419.