Clearing up the junk
Group set to start outdoor cleanup around Neenach this month
Neenach is gearing up for a big spring cleanup this month, with organizers of the annual community trash pickup event hitting the litter-strewn highway early, trash bags in hand.
Photographer Jeff Zimmerman and Paul Henreid, president of the Neenach/Oso Town Council, hit Highway 138 Tuesday and filled more than two dozen trash bags with litter.
“Jeff’s clean up with me (Tuesday) was a private clean up in preparation for a community clean up,” Henreid told The Signal on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the pair filled 27 trash bags with trash and removed at least a half-dozen tires found on Highway 138 in Neenach, just in time Zimmerman said, “for wildflower viewing.”
“I have been voluntarily cleaning up and paying others to clean up that area since 2015,” Henreid said.
“Neenach looks good, especially along Lancaster Road,” he said. “We cleaned it, a (los Angeles) County tractor graded it. It is easy to maintain illegal dumping once the old trash is removed.”
The two men are gearing up to say nothing of setting an example - to convince the rural community around Neenach to devote some time later this month to pick up trash.
During the two-day event, Henreid and Zimmerman hope to rid the Highway 138 corridor of tires and trash, south of the county line with Kern County.
“The April 27-28 (cleanup) will be a community event sponsored by Neenach/Oso Town Council like last time .... Highway 138 needs clean up from I-5 to Highway 14,” Henreid said. “I maintain 138 near the Neenach Town Center, and I maintain Lancaster Road from Neenach to Antelope Acres. Our last big tire clean up made a huge dent.”
Over the last couple of years, the tire recycling program in Neenach -- finding discarded tires, collecting them and then recycling them -- has been getting some traction in the community.
In 2015, volunteers cleaned up about 300 tires. In 2017, the event was one of the most supported ones Henreid reported seeing.
About 10 million waste tires are generated annually, according to Public Works officials.
Waste tires that are illegally dumped or improperly stored can pose a serious threat to public health and safety, as well as to the environment. The result can be urban blight and significant costs to residents.