A community cleanup — with big results — was Saturday and Sunday for Plato, Roby, Success and Evening Shade.
On Saturday, 25 volunteers from the community fire departments, the Northwest Texas County Lions Club and others tended dumpsters and separated tires and metal from junk brought at the fire departments. On Sunday, 26 engineering officers from Fort Leonard Wood joined local volunteers to clean up local dump sites and roads.
Besides two dumpsters set at each collection site, a 30-yard rolloff dumpster was set by Wil-Co of Mountain Grove at the Roby Fire Department for furniture and other large items. It was filled to capacity.
The Roby Fire Department, led by Chief Keith Follin, loaded a large trailer with scrap metal that will be sold to help support the fire department. At last count, 243 tires were brought to a staging area at the Roby lookout tower yard. The tires will be hauled away by a community tire program of the Bridgestone Americas Corps.
Organizers wanted to thank sponsors Miller’s Grill, Town and Country Supermarket of Houston, the Missouri Stream Team program, Wil-Co and especially the funding source, the South Central Solid Waste Management District run by Lynda and Tim Roehl.
Peter Maki, an organizer, said Carolyn Mason and Tom Steinbach put together barbecue on Saturday and did another on Sunday to feed the Fort Wood engineers. Organizers also thanked Pat and Penny Horrace and Keith Follin of the Roby Fire Department for their countless volunteer hours that make their community a great place to live.
The partners for the community cleanup include the Roby Fire Department, Kuhn’s Sanitation Service, the South Central Solid Waste Management District, the Northwest Texas County Lions Club, the U.S. Forest Service and the Big Piney River Stream Team Watershed Association.