Volunteers join Rogan picking up trash & debris
Bob Rogan didn’t hide his frustration when he described Cornwall as looking like a third world country. The West Point Tours bus driver and 20-year resident has spent the last two months trying to clean up the garbage folks toss out of their cars.
It was during his regular route along Quaker Avenue that Rogan began noticing all the trash strewn along the Route 9W exit ramps. Tired of the mess in an otherwise affluent community, he decided to do something about it. He took two trash bags and started cleaning up the west side of the roadway, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough. It eventually took 19 bags to remove all the garbage.
Rogan quickly found the task to be too overwhelming for one man, so he wrote a letter to the editor in the Dec. 16 edition of The Cornwall Local asking for volunteers. Two ladies answered the call.
The Living in Cornwall Facebook community caught wind of the effort and soon the volunteer number ballooned to nearly a dozen. Having cleaned up Quaker Avenue, the crew has been working on clearing the trash along the Moodna Creek and Route 32.
Due to the steep slope down to the creek, motorists passing by are unlikely to see the mess, but Rogan said it doesn’t set a good example to the kayakers who pass through Cornwall.
It’s not just paper and the usual household trash which finds its way along the creek. This past Sunday, volunteers were using rope to pull up mattresses, wooden chairs, a large flat-screen TV, baby carriages, tires, and what looked to be the frame of an old dresser.
“This to me is like meditation because all you’re thinking about is trash,” Rogan said. “It’s very enlightening and it feels good. How can it not?”
Rogan said the guardrail along Rt. 32 is useless and all it does is provide leverage for anyone trying to get rid of large, heavy items. He said anyone can take those same items to the dump on Rt. 17K for free. He suggested an eight-foot fence, with barbed wire, be erected to prevent future dumping. He added signs should be posted warning folks of a potential fine for littering.
Despite the showing from the community, Rogan questioned why it’s taking a volunteer effort to clean up Cornwall rather than the town’s sanitation department.Lloyd Sabin, one of the volunteers, also called the town out, requesting someone take care of the problem or declare Cornwall a dump.
Not only have volunteers provided labor, some have donated trash bags. Foley Landscape Contractors provided a dumpster for all the trash collected and IL Tesoro Ristorante & Pizzeria offered pizza to the weary workers. Mamma Mia! Cafe & Pizzeria has already offered to donate pizza following next week’s clean-up.
Rogan said there are three other pull-offs heading south on Rt. 32, so the clean-up effort is not nearly complete. He said he and the other volunteers will be out every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. He welcomes anyone interested to lend a helping hand.