Keep Alpine Beautiful

April 18, 2016
Dear Citizens,

Our Keep Alpine Beautiful Committee has been very busy this past month with the Electronics Recycling, Bulky Trash pick-up, Texas Trash Off and the upcoming Earth Day celebration. Many thanks go to Patsy McWilliams for her leadership and coordination of these critical functions. We’ll discuss some of the results at tomorrow nights City Council, but I wanted to share two letters Patsy wrote.

First letter regarding Electronics Recycling:

Keep Alpine Beautiful had another successful Electronics Recycling Event. Participation spanned the tri-county area with separate events held in both Terlingua and Ft. Davis. E-waste was brought from as far away as Big Bend National Park and as close as across the street from the Old Fire Station. Together we recycled 21,528 pounds of electronics! Again, big humpbacked televisions made up the largest quantity of items, but printers, fax machines, microwaves, computers, and even modern LCD monitors and tvs contributed to the full truckload. ECS Refining of Mesquite, TX hauled off the electronics for recycling. All hard drives were immediately shredded so that no data was recoverable.

In Alpine, we had an abundance of help this go-around! Due to the event being held over spring break, several youth from Alpine Independent School District stepped in to help: Nick Miller, Roarke Zimmer, Logan Duschatco, Bobbie Roberts, Mary-Anna Roberts, and Colleen Roberts contributed collectively 105 hours to the event. Keep Alpine Beautiful committee members, Martha Latta, Mike Latta, and Abby Garza added another collective 16 hours. Other volunteers include Aaron Curlee and Rafael Azuaje. Special thanks go to Ft. Davis and Terlingua volunteers for putting together events in their communities: Rosemary Dennis, who worked tirelessly for 3 days, used her own truck and trailer to bring items to Alpine, and helped unload it all, and Ruth Jansyn, who worked the event in South Brewster County.

We will continue to hold the Electronics Recycling Events bi-annually as there seems to be no shortage of outdated e-waste. In the interim, please call 294-3183 if you have large electronic items to dispose of. Thank you all for your commitment to recycling and Keeping Alpine and the Big Bend Beautiful.

Sincerely,

Patsy McWilliams

Second Letter Regarding the Texas Trash Off:

Once again, the people of Alpine have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-off. Keep Alpine Beautiful volunteers collected litter along roadways, parks, neighborhoods, and Alpine Creek on Saturday, April 9, 2016 as part of the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off which is Texas’ largest single-day litter cleanup program.

To jump start the DMWT Trash-off, on April 6, Sul Ross State University Lobo Football Team loaded 11,000 pounds of truck tires to be shipped out for recycling. These tires, the result of years of illegal dumping, were no match for the approximately 50 college football players led by Coach John Pierce. This is the third time the Lobos have loaded tires at the Hal Flanders Recycling Center.

This year, all activities started at Kokernot Park. Volunteers gathered at 9 am on Saturday to receive instruction, bags, vests, and gloves. After a quick run through, the groups were off to their locations and spent most of the morning picking up litter.

For the past five years, Cub Scout Den #141 has cleaned up the entire of length of Alpine Creek. They start at the dip in the road on Fighting Buck Avenue and pop back out at Medina Park. This year, 37 scouts including their families, picked up 46 bags of trash and recyclables in our City Creek.

Other youth groups, Daisy Scout Troop 28113, Brownie Scout Troop 28212, and Brewster County Twin Peaks 4-H, concentrated their clean up in Medina, Baines, and Kokernot Parks, respectively. Additionally, both the AISD National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society were represented cleaning Alpine High School grounds and areas surrounding Buck Stadium. Students from High Frontier spent all morning picking up trash, pulling weeds, and trimming shrubs at the Alpine Animal Shelter. And not to be outdone, several groups gathered trash along our city’s roadways: LDS Church (Loop Road), Junior and Cadette Scout Troops 28222 and 28333 (Murphy Street), Mack Family Farm (Mosley Loop), and Big Bend Regional Medical Center (the area where East Highway 90 comes together).

Every year the Texas Department of Transportation awards one person across the state with a prize for finding the most unusual item. This year, Christian Teague of the Brewster County Twin Peaks 4H Club found a paintball mask in the far reaches of Kokernot Park. This was Alpine’s weirdest item and Christian will be entered in the TxDoT constest.

We also had several individual volunteers cleaning up illegal dump sites and throughout town. Hiram and Liza Sibley and Tom and Susan Curry worked on cleaning up illegally dumped brush and trash in the alley behind Historic Murphy Street. Martha Latta cleaned up both Loop Drive and the Alpine Chamber of Commerce grounds.

Also, special thanks to Kiowa Gallery and Framing, Tierra Grande Master Naturalists, Plaine Coffee, Alpine Montessori School, Alpine VFW Post 7207, Tri-Beta Honor Society/SRSU Biology Club, Kiwanis Club, Big Bend Telephone, Knights of Columbus Council 5096, and Sierra La Rana for taking care of their section of Adopt-A-Highway.

Martha Latta was also on scene at all locations to take lots of photos! At noon, all Volunteer groups met back at Kokernot Park for lunch. Thanks to the Rotary Club International of Alpine for serving a hotdog lunch (provided by Porter’s Thriftway on 2nd Street) to all volunteers. Big Bend Regional Medical Center donated re-usable water bottles for everyone to take home. After a full morning of work, the kids threw Frisbees, played at the playground, and seemed to really enjoy hanging at the park. One National Junior Honor Society volunteer, Nayeli Soto, said “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

All in all, there were over 200 volunteers—the best year yet! Tires, trash, and recyclables collected amassed more than 36, 360 pounds of waste that is now where it belongs. Great job, Alpine! Patsy McWilliams, Keep Alpine Beautiful coordinator said, “This event continues to grow. The youth groups are the backbone of the Trash-off, setting a great example that even our adult citizens could learn from. I can’t wait till next year!”

The City of Alpine truly appreciates the efforts of all of our Volunteers. It’s one reason we have such a thriving and wonderful community to call home.

Have a great week,

Erik Zimmer, City Manager