Naugatuck Valley residents clean up Ansonia streets
ANSONIA — Jeremy McKain walked along North Cliff Street with his family on a chilly Saturday morning when his father, Doile McKain, stopped to pick up trash.
His son stopped to pick up trash too. So did his wife, his other son, and his daughter.
The family volunteered to pick up he city’s litter. Mayor David Cassetti asked people to help clean Ansonia’s streets to celebrate Earth Day. The family came for different reasons but they all pitched in to at least attempt to stem the flow of trash.
Doile McKain lives in Naugatuck and is a pastor at the Apostolic Refuge Tabernacle, a church on Jewett Street in Ansonia. He picked up trash when the mayor and Greg Martin, the director of constituent relations pulled up next to him. McKain quickly flagged the two down and asked for a favor.
He told them the sidewalk outside his church needed repairs. He told them two people, including a young girl, fell and hurt themselves on the sidewalk.
The mayor told him he would take care of it.
“I got $ 65,000 for sidewalk repair and maybe after July 1st, I’ll look at that,” Cassetti said from his car.
The mayor and Martin drove off soon after. The family walked along North Main Street and on to 3rd Street, next to the abandoned Ansonia Copper and Brass building. The fencing surrounding the building has long ago become home to discarded motor oil containers and bottles of antifreeze.
Doile McKain knows that the city doesn’t have the resources to clean up all the streets.
“I mean, cities, communities are struggling financially so they can't really do a lot of upkeep,” Doile McKain said.
Cassetti said that the parks department staff is stretched thin.
“We are short- handed on the public works. When I came to office, there were 23 members of the public works department. Back 20 years ago, there were 42 members. So the jobs have never been filled,” he said.
Cassetti has hired part- time workers to pick up trash in the city from April 1 to Nov. 1. It’s still not enough and he’s proposing a $ 350 fine for littering.
In front of the Dairy Mart on North Main Street, McKain’s son Andrew McKain, of Ansonia, removed cigarette butts fro the grass using a trash picker. He’s a part of the Ansonia Facebook page and he said it’s common for residents to complain about littering.
But, he said, he came out here for a higher purpose.
“I believe God created the Earth, and we have a responsibility to keep it clean and not just treat it any old way,” Andrew McKain said.
Under a blooming tree, he carefully checked the grass for more cigarette butts and plastic wrappers. His bag filled up with all kinds of trash, but he was surprised that he didn’t see that many discarded masks on the ground.
His mother, Violet McKain, used a picker to grab cigarette butts and placed them in the trash bag. She came because she wanted residents to know that her church gives back to the community.
“You know how people have this idea that church is only there to give us offering give us whatever, but our mission is to serve,” Violet McKain said.
Her daughter, Nicole, walked past the Ansonia Copper and Brass building, carefully emptying cans of soda before tossing them in the bag. She stepped onto the grass to grab more items off the ground.
She was happy just to be outside.
“Usually when I come down to Ansonia, I'm only inside of our church building, but to be out and about and to see all the people, it feels good to do that again.
Before the pandemic had upended her life, Nicole McKain had walked the streets of Ansonia, meeting people. Last year put a stop to that. Now she is once again, walking the streets but this time, wearing a reflective vest.
The family wrapped up on North Main Street and State Street. They rested by the American Legion outpost before walking back to the armory and to their cars. Cassetti later said that the volunteers had filled 52 bags with trash. He said two tons of trash had been removed. His satisfaction was short- lived.
He went to a street he had just helped clean up and saw it filled with garbage.
“I just cleaned that area and it’s dirty again,” he said.
But Jeremy McKain, walking along 3rd Street, saw it as a success.
“You know, as small as it may be, I just hope people see that there are folks out here that are trying to better our community, and the little things. So I hope to accomplish that and just serve and do my part, and making it a better place to live in,” McKain said.
“I believe God created the Earth, and we have a responsibility to keep it clean and not just treat it any old way.”
Andrew McKain