Volunteer cleanup crews bring passion to parks, cemeteries
Joe Dumais doesn't know what makes a group of residents want to wander through a cemetery on a Saturday morning, picking up litter, but he's glad they do.
"I haven't figured it out. They're just good Samaritans," said Dumais, manager of cemeteries for the city. With staffing cuts, Dumais said the city can't attend to cemeteries on more than a staggered schedule, leaving time for litter and vandalism to build up.
Today, Spirits Alive, a local group formed in 2006 to look after the Eastern Cemetery on Munjoy Hill, plans a work party from 9 a.m. to noon at the historic 1668 cemetery. It's their first work party of the season at Portland's oldest cemetery, the group announced at its webstie (www.spiritsalive.org).
Countless other civic groups plan similar cleanups today and this month.
City officials said there are more volunteers helping the city with cleanups than in the past. In a time of strained budgets, it's good timing for residents to step up, Dumais said.
"If they weren't helping it wouldn't get done," he said.
A group of volunteers, entirely ad hoc, will scour the East End neighborhood today, also from 9 a.m. to noon. East End resident Jill Sady said she organized the East End cleanup for one simple reason: She saw litter and wanted to do something about it. A recent transplant to the area, Sady said she witnessed first hand the problems of litter.
"We moved into the East End in February, and I walk to work down to the Old Port, and one day I realized it's so messy," Sady recalled.
Sady looked to see if any cleanups were planned in the neighborhood, didn't see any posted, so she spearheaded today's clean-up. Sady promoted the effort by contacting friends and co-workers and distributing an invitation on blogs, posters, postcards and in newspapers. Volunteers are invited to meet at 9 a.m. at the East End Beach parking lot or join the group as it spreads out on the East End. The Munjoy Hill Association has agreed to take care of disposing of the refuse the volunteers pick up, but otherwise Sady said this cleanup hasn't been planned by any organization.
"I'm hoping that enough people will just show up," she said.
Clean-ups range from this type of informal approach to highly structured and coordinated affairs. Roughly 20 neighborhood associations and groups help maintain parks and cemeteries for the city, Dumais estimated.
Friends of Evergreen Cemetery, for example, can mobilize with high efficiency, he said.
"They're capable of some pretty amazing fundraising. They take on some major projects," Dumais said.
Friends of Deering Oaks is another vibrant group with an impressive dedication to the popular park. These neighborhood groups also function as watchdogs, notifying the city when problems arise.
"They're really the eyes and the ears, and they're out there all the time," Dumais said.
Sometimes, groups will coordinate with the city to beef up their cleanups.
The Deering Business Association has teamed up with the city to conduct its annual cleanup at Payson Park by the Back Cove on Sunday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Again, the goal is to fill gaps and complement what the city does.
"Because of the staffing situation with the city, they haven't been able to rake all of the parks from the winter, so we'll be doing some of that," said Patricia Peightal, a member of the association.
The city isn't removing itself from park and cemetery maintenance, officials stressed. Through May 8, Portland Public Services crews are conducting their annual "PDD (Portland's Downtown District) Blitz," a concentrated cleanup and maintenance effort which includes sidewalk repair, bench and crosswalk painting, litter pick-up, graffiti removal, tree planting and mulching, flower planter preparation and bus shelter window cleaning. More than 12 miles of sidewalks in the Old Port and Arts District area will be swept and repaired, more than1,000 parking meter and street light poles will be painted, along with 160 trash cans and more than 20 damaged street/traffic signs will be replaced.
But with limited budgets, city officials said they welcome help from citizens.
"There are crews out now, and they'll be out for the next few weeks, working on cleaning of streets, preparing our parks for summer," said city spokesperson Nicole Clegg. "This is also the time of year when we work with our neighborhood associations and our other volunteer groups, the Adopt A Spot program, and they make a valuable contribution to keeping our parks clean."
Sunday's cleanup at Payson Parkwill again pair up city and private resources. According to a city press releae, the city will provide the materials for the clean-up including trash bags, gloves, rakes and bark mulch as well as take away any of the refuse collected. The Deering Business Association will supply the labor for the clean-up. Shaw's Northgate is donating a $25 gift card, and Leonardo's Pizza is donating pizza for the volunteers, organizers reported.
Neighborhood groups find power in numbers.
Peightal said the Deering Business Association counts bout 20 members, so there's a large enough pool of volunteers that somebody can walk through the neighborhood once a week and keep an eye out for litter and vandalism. Seasonal cleanups are infrequent enough to not become a burden on residents but still fill gaps in the city's maintenance schedule.
"It's kind of fun to do this, get out twice a year. It's only a few hours, so it's not that much time out of the weekend," Peightal said.
City crews can handle some of the heavier lifting, in particular helping the weekly litter patrol do its job, she said.
"People will throw a lot of litter back in the bushes, and it's difficult to get in there on our weekly rounds. They cut back those low-growing bushes so we can get in there," she said.
On Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., the Bayside Neighborhood Association and its Adopt-A-Block program will conduct its annual Bayside Spring Clean-Up Day. Volunteers will meet outside the new Pearl Place apartment complex on Oxford Street.
"This year in addition to picking up hundreds of pounds of litter and trash throughout the downtown neighborhood, volunteers will help clean up and prune a long abandoned sidewalk on Chapel Street. Plans under consideration by the Portland City Council for the Bayside Trail recommend Chapel Street as a pedestrian street and service alley," the group reported.
Dumais said he admires the energy and dedication of citizen groups.
"It's really an eye opener and surprising, it's a pleasant surprise when you have these people who take it upon themselves on their own time and they take the initiative and go out and do these projects. The hustle and bustle and people's schedules, and how busy everyone is, the fact they still find time to do this for you and me is pretty neat," he said.
