Roadside Cleanup

Cubmaster Derek Clifford and Cub Scouts from Pack 190 clean up Helmsburg Road just north of downtown Nashville.

~story and photos by Sara Clifford

For decades, some Brown County residents and visitors have used tucked-away ravines and winding roads as garbage dumps, and for about 10 years, volunteer groups have been working to clean them up.

On Easter weekend this year, before weather scuttled their plans, about two dozen CordrySweetwater Lakes residents planned to pile into pickups and trailers and roll north along Nineveh Road to the Dollar General, bagging up what others left behind. It’s an annual tradition, welcoming part-time residents back to the Lakes with a trash-free drive in.

Cigarette packs, empty miniature liquor bottles, food packaging and already-bagged trash are what they often find, said organizer Carrie Vavul. Clearly, some has been tossed from car windows; some may have fallen from uncovered garbage trucks. It’s mostly small stuff, Vavul said, with the occasional car part.

Elsewhere in the county, it’s a different story.

Volunteer group Keep Brown County Beautiful, with other volunteers from Cummins Inc. in Columbus, has conducted at least two major cleanups over the past seven years in ravines on Upper Oak Ridge Road and Green Road, where illegal landfills appeared and accumulated over decades. Brown County’s only legal landfill, on Dunaway Road northeast of Helmsburg, closed in 1994.

“You wouldn’t believe the stuff we picked up,” said KBCB President Cathy Paradise: carpets, hundreds of tires, furniture, multiple appliances, “anything trash-related, we found it.”

It’s not confined to ravines, either. Staff from the Brown County Solid Waste Management District are called several times a year to pick up roadside hazards in the form of couches, mattresses, TVs, and even hot tubs.

Keeping Brown County beautiful is a big job, made bigger when few people are willing or able to do it.

Volunteers from KBCB used to organize a road cleanup each spring in coordination with the national Great American Cleanup, but it didn’t happen this year. The local group, founded in 2016, has dwindled in numbers, and it has a shortage of able-bodied, dependable people to do the work.

The BCSWMD, a separate entity and a part of county government, has similar trouble with its Adopt a Road program. Out of Brown County’s 400 miles of road, only about 25 stretches are spoken for, said Director Phil Stephens. “A lot of the original adoptees are older now and are having to relinquish that responsibility,” he said.

Besides Cummins, which runs a formal community service program for its employees, the most cleanup help lately has come from Scout groups, the Rotary Club, and local veterans, Paradise said.

“We need more members,” said KBCB board member Mark Shields, a “spring chicken” of the group in his late 40s. “Almost all nonprofits are having the same issues, finding people that are interested and available to volunteer.”

Vavul is thankful to have had adequate help for the Lakes-area cleanup every year, with more welcome to join. “We would feed you!” she added. However, as a real estate agent, she’s also aware that her community is continually changing. “I sold the houses of probably four or five people that participate in it, and then our average age is probably over 60, so that may be something that I could foresee becoming an issue,” she said. “But we do have a really good community with people who like to get out and just make it a better community.”

Besides increasing manpower, KBCB believes that changing mindsets is key to making a lasting difference, which also takes time.

Stephens still remembers scenes from government sponsored, anti-littering commercials that aired decades ago. “There needs to be more examples set at the upper government levels,” he said.

Shields acknowledges that since the landfill closed, trash disposal, especially for large items, has become more difficult.

Paradise would like to see people start showing a little more care for the good of their own community as well as the food chain, the oceans, and the environment at large. “We’re trying to do something about the trash around, but people need to do something, too. We can’t do it by ourselves,” she said. “If you pick up the trash in your own yard, there’d be a lot less trash to deal with.”

HOW TO HELP

Adopt a county road for cleanup. Call the Brown County Solid Waste Management District at 812-988-0140 for more information. The BCSWMD provides trash bags, safety vests, and garbage grabbers, and asks adoptees to clean up four times per year.

Come to a meeting of the Keep Brown County Beautiful board. Members meet at 10 a.m. on second Wednesdays at the Brown County Parks and Recreation Department office at Deer Run Park in Nashville.

If you can’t attend a meeting, call KBCB President Cathy Paradise at 812-327-9617 to learn about other opportunities to support the cause or to offer your group’s volunteer services.

Make a donation toward KBCB’s work. Mail it to the parks department office at 902 Deer Run Lane, Suite B, Nashville, IN 47448.

If you are a Cordry-Sweetwater Lakes resident, look for information about the annual spring cleanup of Nineveh Road on the neighborhood Facebook page or call Carrie Vavul at 317-294-9421.

Dispose of your own trash, electronics, recyclables, and appliances properly—NOT on a roadside or in a ravine.

Go to browncountyrecycles.org or follow the Brown County Recycling Center on Facebook to learn about rules for recyclables and special disposal events.