Towns poised for needed Earth Day cleanup

An air conditioner and bags of trash at a dirt turnoff in Lebanon on Prospect Hill Road plagued by illegal dumping. Below, one roadside reveler thought it clever to hang an empty beer can as an ornament. (Harrison Thorp photo)

Saturday’s Earth Day road cleanup efforts in Lebanon and Milton highlight a growing problem of debris being littered along the towns’ bucolic roadways, a blight less illuminated through the winter months only because the trash becomes covered with snow and sand.

As of 1 p.m. on Friday, Milton's cleanup day was still scheduled, but Lebanon's had been postponed till April 27 due to expected rain tomorrow.

“It’s terrible,” said Lebanon Road Commissioner Larry Torno of the town's trash-strewn roads. “They dump it on our back roads and the money it costs us to pick it up is a lot. Between illegally dumped trash and stealing street signs, that’s a lot of money.”

Along Prospect Hill Road a dirt turnoff near a brook is a prime dumping spot, Torno suspects from New Hampshire residents who don’t want to pay to leave old appliances at local transfer stations.

“The money we pay to pick it up far exceeds what they’d pay to drop it off,” he said.

Torno and his road crews will be donating time and the use of three trucks picking up roadside debris collected on Saturday.

Torno agreed road throughout the town can use the attention on Saturday, but picked out Shapleigh, Merchants Row, Lower Barley, Schoolhouse Lane and Lower Guinea as the most troublesome trash eyesores.

Meanwhile, Milton Highway Dept. Chief Pat Smith said his crews began working this week on a major effort to clean up Milton roads, an effort that won’t end till Memorial Day.

He said hundreds of hours would be spent by town workers on Milton’s two villages, then outlying areas as well.

In addition the Strafford County Corrections office organizes two weeks of work details in May for people in their system who need community hours.

Smith included McKeagney Road, Governor’s Road on the Middleton end, Teneriffe Road, Hopper Road in Milton Mills and Elm Street on the S curve near Route 75 as Milton’s most trash-littered roads. 

In Lebanon the cleanup is town-wide and runs from 9-noon, while in Milton volunteers will be out from 10-noon and concentrate on White Mountain Highway and Applebee Road.

Volunteers in both town wills celebrate their efforts, in Milton with a pot-luck lunch at the Farm Museum; and in Lebanon with a free barbecue put on by Lebanon Rescue at the Lebanon Town Office. Both lunches get under way at noon.