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NEA4WDC Earth Day Clean-up of Coy Hill

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NEA4WDC Earth Day Clean-up of Coy Hill

Postby Scott Hatch » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:18 pm

The Coy Hill Cleanup, April 16, 2005
by Bill Barnes (IFWA)


Before I relate to the details of the cleanup, I want to thank Pat Charron of Baystate Jeepers, Inc. for her outstanding ability to organize this effort. I know Joe Ostrenga had a hand in mapping out the target areas, and “thank you” to all those affiliated with the NEA4WDC who worked with Pat to organize this cleanup. Thanks to the towns of Ware and West Brookfield, for without their full cooperation, not one ounce of the estimated 25 TONS of trash and metal, and some 200 plus tires would have come out of our four-wheeling playground.

We met at the Hi- way Dept. area in West Brookfield on a fantastic Saturday morning at 9:30am, and on the road by 10am. Sunny, warm, and a a perfect day to perform a cleanup of what is easily the most trashed four- wheeling location we use. The turnout in my opinion was so-so. With an Association as big as it is, a few more bodies would have gone a long way. (Where were you?) Pat gave us the particulars on groups and areas. All groups had a pickup truck or two as well as a few Jeeps or other 4X4’s. After grabbing a doughnut or two from the boxes laid out for us (presumably by Pat), I hit the road with Carl Merrick in his truck, and Rick Moore had my friend Jason Carter riding with him. We dragged along Tom Dodge, Steve Rock, and Jeff McClean and their passengers in their Jeeps for support.

My merry little group proceeded up the main access road (no names for security reasons), and started right in with the trash pickup, small stuff at first, then two very big, very heavy hot water tanks. Not the home units, but industrial types. One was full of water, which Carl managed to drain, making the loading slightly easier, but not much. We got a refrigerator, TV, a mattress and box spring or two, and a huge fireplace insert…huge! And then we hit the motherlode…a slew of tires, maybe 30 or more in the brush near the entrance to the powerline. We let the jeeps dig out the tires while we made our first trips to the dumpster and then the landfill to get rid of our first loads. We went back, reloaded the trucks with these tires of all sizes, massive truck tires, small car and medium sized things. It was tough work. It was also fun to watch Carl get his truck stuck just off the road on the line in the muddy field. Steve Rock and his red Rubicon gave Carl the gentle nudge with a tow strap he needed to get free. After this second landfill trip, we helped unload some of the other trucks coming in. One truck had a motorcycle in it, not to mention more tires, springs, axles (a chevy 10 bolt), a truck hood, fenders, washers, dryers, a home oil tank, and still more tires.

By this time, it was already after one o’clock. We had a club run scheduled for 12pm, but since nobody from NE4Wi bothered to show up outside of the five “official” members of Merrick, Dodge, Rock, McClean and Moore who participated in the cleanup (where was the rest of NE4Wi?), we all decided to start the run closer to two o’clock. Carl elected to volunteer his truck for more cleanup work, and was still doing so about 3:30pm when we saw him last. Awesome, Carl.

So…how dedicated were the cleanup people? Very dedicated. A group was still pulling debris onto the road from the woods at 4:15pm. I hated to be the one to tell them that the landfill closed at four. I hope there is a follow up to this cleanup next week or so as there is at least 3-4 more tons of trash close to the road. As for the NE4Wi trail ride. Someone else can write that. All I’ll say is, it was a good time.
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Scott Hatch
 
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