This year’s haul from Riverblitz was more than ten tons of trash collected, though the 10.1 tons of material included a couple of burned out cars. According to Beautification Coordinator Mary Garwood, 167 volunteers participated in last week’s Riverblitz event. 

The list of top groups who volunteered this year included Albertsons and Chevron, two of the companies in town with the great records in terms of always being there to help. Other major organizations who assisted were the Bureau of Land Management, Eddy County and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had 26 volunteers this year. NWP provided water bottles. Gloves, bags, grabbers, snacks and masks were also given to anyone interested. Of course, some of the biggest Riverblitz heroes were the men, women and children who simply decide to go out that day, and many others, to help pick up trash.

Riverblitz has grown a great deal over the past 22 years. In 2020, during one of the most difficult COVID-19 shutdown periods, there were still 5.9 tons of materials picked up.  As everyone knows, the need to focus on cleanup never seems to end. Cleanup activities are scheduled throughout the year and we will let you know when new opportunities come up. 

Our next beautification activity will be Household Hazardous Waste Day, which will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 15 at the Carlsbad Beach Parking Lot. There will also be a confidential drug takeback. We are able to take residential waste including tires, fertilizers, paint thinner, gasoline, oil, cleaning products, pesticides, anti-freeze, batteries, old cell phones, E-waste and fluorescent light bulbs. For more information, please call (575) 628-8176. We hope this will also be another chance to meet Carlos the Coyote. 

From the office of Mayor Dale Janway