To celebrate Earth Day this weekend, the University of Nevada, Reno Extension office is hosting a Hawthorne Community Clean Up event with free trash removal this April 21-24.
People were able to put their lumber/wood, metal (pipe or appliances), hazardous vehicle batteries, and tires out on the street (put into separate piles) to be picked up by Mineral County’s public works department. Cars, paint, pesticides, and herbicides are not picked up- or anything placed against fences- and building demolition is prohibited. Call the Mineral County Extension at (775) 945-3444 for more information about this trash pick-up event.
“A lot of people have a lot of crap around their house and don’t have any way to take it to the dump,” says UNR Extension Community Based Instructor Patty Click, who has been with the UNR Extension in Mineral County for 12 years. She explains that this is the one time a year when people don’t get charged for properly disposing of their hard-to-get-ridof materials and it’s convenient for them to just put it out on the street.
“This is a town that has a lot of older, retired people that have a lot of junk but don’t have any way to take it to the dump. It’s nice that they can drag their stuff out into the street and Public Works brings a loader and a dump truck and goes up and down the streets to remove it,” Click explains. She adds that residents mainly use this time to discard furniture, appliances, piles of branches, boxes, and “anything you can think of.”
“I think people look forward to getting rid of stuff, and I think it does help [beautify the town]. It’s so much easier to haul it out to the street,” Click says.
On Saturday, April 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., The Mineral County UNR Extension will also be hosting a big Hawthorne Community Cleanup and Earth Day Celebration at Veterans Memorial Park with free hot dogs, a kids bounce house, flower planting activity, and more.
“We’ve been doing this for about 10 years, as long as I can remember,” Click says of its annual Earth Day Celebration following the Hawthorne Community Cleanup. There are at least 20 local vendors promoting sustainable, environmental efforts as well as selling arts and crafts and providing educational items.
“SAPTA [Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency] will be here, SOC sponsors the hot dog barbeque and usually shows up with a bunch of communal plants for a plant exchange. Veterans Services is usually here, and the utility company brings fruit-infused water. The new Walker Lake Candy Company will be here, a lot of crafts, Sparky the fire dog, and McGruff the crimefighting dog will be here, and Community Chest is doing a prescription roundup,” she explains. The Party Patrol deejay Tyler Viani will be spinning records and the Kenny Bostic Memorial Youth Athletic Fund is providing the kids’ bounce house.
“I hope everybody comes. It’s a fun thing to do, the community gets to come and hang out, and hopefully the wind doesn’t come up and we’ll have a beautiful day,” Click says.
