The group of retired RCMP officers who helped Rotarians last week take a bite out of the garbage in and on the banks of the Waterford River included, starting from left: Supt. Trudy Power, Staff Sgt. Ed Lutz, Sgt. Major Dave Tipple, Staff Sgt. Brian Campbell, Supt. Leo O'Brien, and Staff Sgt. Randy Mercer. Missing from the photo is Sgt. Major Jim Skanes. The members represent a combined 240 years of police experience.
By Chad Feehan / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Members of the RCMP Veterans Association are still talking about the amount of trash they found during a cleanup of the Waterford River last week with members of the Rotary Club of Waterford Valley.
But they were also impressed by the good stewardship the Rotarians are demonstrating for the river.
Rotary co-chair Bill Stoyles said he is always grateful for the help, support, and empathy his organization receives from members of the community, but he wishes such cleanups didn’t have to happen in the first place.
“Some of the stuff that's going along the river is just shocking,” Stoyles said.
A group of roughly 15 Rotarians and RCMP veterans spruced up an area both east and west of Corisande Drive, collecting 46 bags of trash between them, much of it general litter and fast food containers.
The crew spent about an hour clearing up one particularly messy section of tarp, Tyvek, and a silt dam.
“That goes flying off into the underbrush and then it gets down into the river wrapped around a bunch of trees,” Stoyles said.
The Rotarians pick up more Tim Hortons Cups than any other bit of trash, which is a consistent trend through all of their numerous cleanups.
Stoyles and his group maintain the introduction of a return on pop bottles at the recycling depots has drastically reduced the number of bottles left around the city, as their return can generate a source of income for people.
Stoyles suggested a similar program for Tim Hortons cups would encourage the same effect.
“It’s shocking that there’s no refund on those cups,” he said. “I know you can’t very well blame Tim Hortons because it’s the people throwing them out.”
Stoyles said the RCMP veterans were more than enthusiastic about helping with the cleanup.
Retired Staff Sgt. Randy Mercer, one of the veterans at the cleanup, decided to help after seeing a story about the Rotarians efforts in The Shoreline and The Pearl News.
" I said, 'I want to be a part of that.' I went to our group, and they said, ‘Yes, let's do it.' So I got in contact with Rotary."
Mercer said if what his team and the other volunteers pulled from the river and its banks is any indication, "we're a dirty society. We've lost our sensibilities when it comes to taking care of our environment. It's just disgusting."
The retired Mounties couldn’t get over the amount of garbage they collected, but were gratified by how much was accomplished.
"A funny thing happened; just as myself and a buddy started to clean up one part of the river there on the side, two ducks came by and it almost looked like they were saying, 'Jeepers boys, thanks!'" said Mercer, laughing. "We're looking forward to it again."
The retired Mounties help with numerous charitable causes, including the Salvation Army's Christmas gift campaign, food kitchens, and the homeless. But this cleanup turned out to be particularly special. For some years, the retired officers had adopted a stretch of the TransCanada Highway between Butterpot Park and the Witless Bay Line and would clean up trash on both sides of the road. But after a provincial government employee was killed and a City of St. John's worker was seriously injured by a vehicle while working along the Outer Ring Road, the Province banned highway cleanups and only allows them now when a whole stretch of road can be closed to traffic.
"And rightly so too," said Mercer. "They (the provincial Department of Transportation) used to pick up the garbage for us after we bagged it up and put it on the side of the highway... So, for us as a group, we saw this as a really nice opportunity to get back into what we once did and what we enjoyed doing for the community. And of course, being on the river and doing it the way we did it, we were away from traffic and all that stuff. It was a beautiful evening."
Mercer said it was also enjoyable because the values of the two groups, namely taking care of the environment and the community, match up so well. "It was a perfect fit for the evening, and every one of our crew are saying we just hope that they'll call us back again. We want to do whatever other project that they are doing, because we found them such a positive group to be around."
Stoyles would like to see more residents expressing such pride in their neighborhoods by getting out and cleaning up open, public spaces in addition to their own backyards.
“They need to take ownership of it all. That’s what Rotary is doing. We’re taking ownership of the valley and we’re not going to put up with this,” he said.
Residents interested in helping with a community cleanup can get involved by calling Stoyles at 709-682-9244.
