Cleanup weekend is a chance to take stock
With debris and silt from summer flooding still cluttering Santa Fe neighborhoods, the annual fall cleanup weekend is particularly important this year. Heavy monsoon rains have helped weeds flourish as well.
This weekend, we can take care of the mess.
Saturday will be a day for the community to come together and pick up neighborhoods, arroyos, parks, school campuses and streets. From 7 a.m. to noon, residents can take part in the Keep Santa Fe Beautiful Toss No Más Fall Cleanup. Preregister online at www.santafenm.gov/ registration and show up at 1142 Siler Road bright and early Saturday morning. Gloves, trash bags and T-shirts will be ready and waiting.
Naturally, volunteers who choose to walk in the day of the event also are welcome. People can participate as individuals or take part as a group — businesses, civic clubs, youth organizations — all are welcome. It’s a good opportunity to clock in community service hours, too.
City crews will be working alongside residents putting Santa Fe back into tip-top shape.
The hours of cleanup, too, should be a valuable opportunity for city leaders to see what still needs to be fixed after the flood. In some neighborhoods, property owners have not removed silt from sidewalks or begun work repairing walls felled by the floodwaters.
Yellow tape isolates the damage, but after weeks, the tape is fading and the areas do not always appear safe. It’s time to help the people who have not started work on walks or walls to make repairs.
The citywide cleanup is held along with the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency’s Trash Amnesty Days. That means city and county residents can dispose of household items at no charge at the Buckman Road Recycling & Transfer Station, 2600 Buckman Road, on both Saturday and Sunday.
Considering how much debris remains from the July floods, people will not want to miss out on free dumping. The center will take trash, rubbish, remodeling or building materials and bulky items like appliances, furniture and mattresses.
Amnesty days are important so that people who don’t feel they can afford dump fees can rid themselves of trash without resorting to open fields or arroyos. As we all know dumping on public lands, along roads or in a nearby fields is epidemic in rural New Mexico.
With amnesty days, excuses about the cost of dumping are gone (remember, selfdumping trailers and business waste won’t be allowed). Hours both Saturday and Sunday are 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Lines to the dump can be long during amnesty days, so be prepared for a bit of a wait.
By the end of the weekend, folks likely will be sore and tired, perhaps a bit sunburned, too. But the city will be cleaner, with fewer weeds and more attractive parks. All of Santa Fe will enjoy the results, so let’s get busy. Together.