“Haines Community Pride Week” starts Saturday.
The annual community cleanup organized by the Haines Chamber of Commerce offers prizes to residents who collect the most trash from community areas like streets, roadside ditches and fields.
“We’re hoping everyone takes pride in their community and helps clean it up,” said chamber president Barbara Mulford.
A “king” and “queen” of trash will be named and awarded prizes and a dump pass will go to the person who brings in the most poundage of refuse from public areas, Mulford said. Bags are available at the chamber office in the Gateway Building on Main Street during business hours.
The chamber is discontinuing per-bag reimbursement to community groups collecting trash. Instead, the Haines Borough’s contribution to the effort – up to $1,000 – will go directly to Community Waste Solutions to help pay for the cost of processing trash collected, Mulford said.
Previously, groups earned $3 per bag collected and $1 went to the landfill company. But Mulford said the event sent the company “backward, big time” because of its $5 per bag cost to process the waste. “We don’t want to see the event go away. If it costs CWS a minimum of $5 per bag, they’re not going to keep doing it,” she said.
The company will issue an invoice to the borough reflecting its cost of accepting and processing the garbage.
Mulford said the chamber is hopeful that residents will continue to support the cleanup as they have in the past. “You shouldn’t have to be paid to take pride in your community.”
Filled bags can be dropped off at the Community Waste Solutions landfill on FAA Road between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The chamber asks that residents honor the intent of the event – cleaning up public areas – and refrain from including personal trash in event bags.
Residents Liz Heywood and Barb Blood have each won “queen of trash” crowns in past years.
Blood – who typically harvests up 10 to 20 bags of garbage – said she’ll be out again this year, picking up along Third Avenue. Discontinuation of the $3 is a loss to the Friends of the Library, which her collection previously benefitted. “We’d make up to $300 on that. It was in our budget. We were counting on it.”
Heywood, who filled 54 bags to the top to win the queen crown in 2010, said heroic measures aren’t necessary for cleaning up the town. “If everyone goes out and gets a bag or two, that would make it happen.”
Heywood said it would be nice to make an effort to also get people to stop littering. “The sad thing is that if you really start looking for trash, you see it. There’s a lot of trash out there.”