When things slow down a bit in the oil patch and within Estevan’s industrial community, it doesn’t take long before, otherwise idled, crews find something positive to do.
On the past two Fridays, teams of employees and managers took to the ditches and approaches along Highway 39 between Estevan and the Bienfait turnoff. Their mission was to collect, sort and dispose of several tonnes of garbage that had accumulated over the winter.
Dave Mack, one of the co-ordinators for the Friday outings, said the first Friday, April 10, pick and clean crews consisted of about 16 to 20 people employed by businesses on the east side of the Shand access road while the April 17 volunteers came from businesses located on the west side of that road. At last count there were about 14 businesses in total who contributed time, talent and vehicles for the sweep up and pick up.
“We’ve filled three commercial dumpsters today,” said Ryan Neufeld of Turnbull’s Excavating, one of the participating businesses.
There had been no declarations of any clean up week, or specially denoted spring cleaning proclamations coming from City Hall or anywhere else. This was simply a group of people who wanted to do something positive with some of their time.
“Activity is low in the patch right now. Road bans are on and things are fairly quiet so the word came out that we should do something positive,” said Mack.
It had been noted earlier this spring, that there was a lot of litter collected in the ditches between North Portal and Estevan, so Mack said the opportunity was there to do something about it.
“We collected a lot of cardboard,” said Joyce Neufeld, one of the volunteers.
“We also left the bottles and cans near the roads so the regular bottle-pickers can still do their thing,” she added.
The rest went into large garbage bags or into the back of large and small trucks provided by the companies who were involved in the effort.
One visit to a deposit site revealed a lot of wood, including two fence posts plus a vehicle grill. There was lots of drywall, cardboard, plastic bags, coffee cups and food wrappers.
The hope was that the drivers, who usually motor up and down that stretch of highway, will notice the effort made to clean up the mess, and thereby make a decision to keep their debris in their vehicles until it can be disposed of properly.
Time will tell. In the interim, about 40 employees from various local companies are hoping they’ve made at least a small difference in helping to create a healthier environment and a more pleasant-looking stretch of highway.
