The final haul
Volunteers in home stretch of garbage haulout at former homeless camp
With their access to Caltrans property behind Lowe’s in Sonora rescinded one day before the work was to begin, 1pileatatime co-founder Jason Revord had to think fast.
“We had no driveable access, with railroad tracks on one side, a retaining wall and a creek on the other side,” he said.
They had to come up with a new plan if they wanted to achieve their goal of removing years worth of garbage that had accumulated in part from a former homeless encampment that was cleared out by the City of Sonora earlier this year.
The crew figured out a new strategy quickly, with emphasis on using a skyline to bring most if not all of the trash up to trucks in the Lowe’s parking lot.
The work was made easier with the help of Jim and Martha Grossman and their equipment, specifically a boom truck that was especially useful in pulling items up a hillside.
Grossman was involved in many big clean-ups in the area, and his expertise in disaster cleanup was very much appreciated in this operation. The boom was used for the first time on March 20, and Revord stated that 75 cubic yards of trash was hauled out on the trial run of the equipment.
Volunteers at the site on Saturday ranged in age from 16 to 73, as well as a couple of younger children who worked alongside their parents.
The atmosphere was party-like, and the enthusiasm almost palpable.
Sixteen-year-old Malia Revord worked bagging trash and as a runner, bringing water and trash bags to volunteers. She was happy to help out and said “My community is looking better, and it is a better place without the trash.” Justin Almstrom, 37, of Crystal Falls worked on the project since day one and brought two of his quads out to assist with transporting trash from
the sites.
Almstrom and Jason Revord have known each other since childhood, and Almstrom has helped on another #1pileatatime project.
“It is great to be here, everybody is happy and smiling,” he said. “The amount we got done in four days is amazing.”
The project began on March 6 and 7 and continued on March 13, with Saturday and Sunday serving as the final days.
Volunteers didn’t just bag up the trash. Items were sorted for recycling, an assortment of metal was separated out and stacked in an area to be delivered to R&S Metals, batteries were collected in a bucket, and shopping carts in good condition were delivered back to the stores.
Human waste from three homemade toilets was set aside as a biohazard to be disposed of. Of the hazardous materials, Revord told his volunteers, “If it is hazardous, don’t do it.
“I and the other helpers in the orange vests will handle it,” he said.
Fewer than 100 hypodermic syringes were found on the property and put into containers for safe removal.
On the volunteers’ lunch break, Doug Wilson proudly spouted some statistics about the day’s work.
“In two hours and 24 minutes, we hauled 37 loads,” he remarked.
Wilson added that each load was about a cubic yard, and they brought it up the hill and into the trucks in just under four minutes for each load. He and his wife, Lynette, are from Groveland and volunteered their time and equipment.
On Sunday, at the close of the clean-up project, the orange fencing was to come down, and Revord said that ”No Trespassing” signs and surveillance purchased with 1pileatatime funds will be installed on the property.
The cameras, Revord hoped, “would make people think twice” about dumping garbage.