Letter: Join Me on Farmington Clean-Up Day

Dear Farmington,

On Saturday, we have an opportunity to take direct action to make our Town a better place by participating in Farmington Clean-Up Day.  And participation is easy; all you need to do is pick up and bag litter.  You don't have to register and you only need to interact with volunteers if you need supplies or want to put the litter onto a Town truck.  This event, a Farmington Garden Club project, is now in its 15th year and it coordinates volunteers toward a single, simple goal; a cleaner Farmington.

The Garden Club will have volunteers at three locations, the Farmington Firehouse, Tunxis Hose Firehouse, and the Farmington Main Library, and they will provide you with trash bags, gloves, and refreshments.  The Town of Farmington will have trucks at these same locations to haul away the bags of litter.  The hours of collection at the three locations are officially 8am to 1pm but that's just for the official weigh-ins and drop-offs. Feel free to start right now. No one cares exactly when the trash was picked up; we just want trash to be picked up. So if your Saturday is busy, pick up some litter on Thursday or Friday. The Saturday locations are important for providing bags, gloves, and weigh-ins. You can pick up litter anytime.  Additional information can be found at http://www.farmington-ct.org/docs/FYI/Clean_up.pdf .

The Garden Club, as an incentive for your participation, has also announced a completion for Clean-Up Teams and will award Flatbread pizzas to the teams bringing in the most litter (by pound).  The awards will go to teams in three categories; Families, Clubs, and School Groups.  In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of a Clean-Up team, the Farmington Democrats.  We fully intend to win the pizza in the Club Category and we challenge all other Town groups to try to out pick us!  And we will be the first to applaud you if you do.

Over the past 14 Farmington Clean-Up Days, a lesson has been learned; when more citizens participate, more trash is picked up and the more our town improves.  Many hands make light work.  With this in mind I urge you to lend your hand on Saturday and join with the Farmington Garden Club in this important effort.  I hope to see you.

Thank You,

John Vibert
Farmington Town Council