Saturday morning found area roads just a bit busier than usual.  The difference was odd loads in the back of many pick ups and SUV’s.  Large cardboard boxes, rolled rugs & the odd handle sticking up here and there. Not to mention the tires, which were in abundance at the junk pick up locations.  The high school may have been the busiest location in New Carlisle.
The mobile pick up service provided by Impact Bethel was very successful.  They spent the morning going from house to house helping homeowners who were unable to help themselves.  By 9:30 am, one dumpster had enough old used furniture to fill it halfway to capacity.  The backhoe crushed the large worn couches and big old recliners to make more room. 
PRIDE workers (Providing Responsibilities for Inmates through Duties for the Environment)   were supervised by Deputy Burch. “The program allows select inmates from the Clark County Jail to help cleanup dump sites and litter and help care for public areas. The PRIDE workers save thousands of dollars in cleanup costs every year, and have removed more than 100 tons of illegally dumped debris from public areas in Clark County every year since 1991!” 
Many other familiar faces could be seen helping out.  City Manager Kim Jones was there helping direct and answer questions.  “I believe I’ve been here every year since it started.  That was around the same time we started the Memorial Day Walk.”  Most years you could find Cathy Marshall there, catching up with friends and neighbors and further assisting with the traffic flow.  Howie Kitko was there as usual.  He normally makes arrangements and works with Bethel Township, Clark County Combined Health District, Clark County Waste Management District and Impact Bethel to make sure things run smoothly.  Kitko said, “Not this year but last, someone wanted to throw away a large nonfunctioning Jacuzzi.  You could probably get six people in there.  We took it.  Bunch of us worked together to get it cut into 4 huge pieces that we could throw away.”
Mostly though, smaller things are going into the huge dumpsters.  A lot of construction materials, wood, tile, plasterboard and old structures from the yard were definitely plentiful.  Metal objects were set in yet another dumpster so they could be recycled.  Jones said it’s kind of a relief.  Letting people get rid of all the things that would normally just pile up on their properties and have to be dealt with later.  When this program first started, people were lined up, everyone in a hurry to get here before the dumpsters became full.  As time has gone on, there is less and less junk coming in.  The program is working, Keeping Clark County Beautiful!