  |
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Nov. 8, 1999
99-232
Contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, public information manager, (509) 575-2610
YAKIMA - Ecology Youth Corps litter crews operating in Yakima County cleaned 234 miles of roadway, accumulating 4,203 bags of litter and 681 bags of recyclables over an eight-week period this summer.
The 26 youths, ages 14-17, worked on five crews throughout the upper and lower Yakima Valley.
"These kids are to be commended for cleaning our highways and sticking with a job that's important, but sometimes tedious," said Glenn Duncan, with the Washington Department of Ecology's solid-waste program.
"The Yakima crews had the most interesting summer of all the crews working in our region," Duncan noted. "In addition to coming across hundreds of dollars, crew members also found a mortar shell on Highway 97 that required a bomb squad to remove, a Gameboy, and a couple of blank checks made out for $375.
A Yakima crew also helped a motorist whose car caught on fire and was visited by a television crew while working in Interstate 82.
"Crews are trained to play it safe when it comes to certain items," Duncan said. "Ideally, we would not need litter crews if people were responsible citizens and properly disposed of their trash."
The Sunnyside crew, supervised by Chet Bridger of Grandview, included
Veronica Valencia and Dusty Duim of Outlook; Rochelle Rice and Juan Duarte of
Sunnyside; Joel Green, Jessie Espinoza and Rachel Cantu of Grandview; Ben
Anderson and Ben Minter of Prosser; and Thomas McMurray and Andy Anderson of
Granger.
The Toppenish crew, supervised by Paul May of Yakima, included Jezzee Gonzales,
Dana Elizondo, Jorge Sanchez and Monica Sanchez of Toppenish, and Gonzalo Guzman
of Wapato.
The Yakima crew, supervised by Saul Barrientes of Kittitas, included Joshua Sperle of Union Gap; Irma Avalos of Tieton; Tyler Hill, Donovan Sims, Juan Suarez, Marianne Watkins, Jennifer Jenkins, David Butterton, Allison Montgomery and Amber Cooley of Yakima.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
