Lake Forest needs to be cleaned up

Updated: September 10, 2012 6:12AM

Feeling unhappy about the visible refuse on West Deerpath, I headed out with a large garbage bag, rubber gloves, and my long-armed “grabber” in hand.

I spent about 90 minutes picking up trash along a 2.5-block stretch. I could hardly get home with the bulging garbage bag, I was hot and sweaty, but there were some interesting observations.

1. I think it’s fair to say that there was significantly more litter heading east into the village than heading west out of it.

2. Secondly, the entrance to the bike path (off Ahwahnee) was really shocking. There was a lot of litter to the right side of the bike path entrance, which is not directly on Deerpath; thus, it wasn’t from passing cars.

3. Thirdly, along the entire stretch of my pick-up area, there was quite an array of items; certainly more varied than I expected. In addition to the expected beer and pop bottles, fast-service restaurant bags, decomposing Styrofoam cups, and cigarette packages/butts (geez…who smokes anymore), the most interesting included: a chopped-up credit card, small animal skulls, things that shall not be named, abandoned flags (you know, the orange ones that signal stuff like cable and fiber optic areas), Gatorade bottles, juice boxes, all kinds of salty snack bags (potato chips, Fritos, Trail Mix wrappers, protein bars), and way too many candy wrappers (for Snickers, M&M’s, Pay-Days, Milk Duds, Gummie Bears).

It caused me to have some new thinking on the subject. I bet we could help this situation by implementing a few strategies:

1. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a good, long sit-down discussion with our kids about civic responsibility.

2. Secondly, how about we all be willing to head out and “pick up” occasionally? (That is…. specifically with this mission in mind.)

3. Perhaps our aldermen could seriously consider an anti-littering ordinance (or strengthen one if it already exists) ….. a $50 penalty for a first offense; civic duty “clean–up” hours for each offense after that?

4. And, perhaps they could unleash a small amount of resources to provide an extra degree of village assistance in this clean-up matter.

Aside from ruining the aesthetic beauty of Lake Forest, the current situation doesn’t help any of our real estate values. Could we please do something about this?

Nancy Voorhees, Lake Forest

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