Two outer East Portland neighborhoods clean out mega-tons of trash

You’ll be shocked and amazed at how many tons of refuse was collected in Argay Terrace and Lents! Read about it right here …

Lents Neighborhood Association clean-up organizers, Judy and John Welch, collect refuse at one of their sites.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
In addition to the area-wide clean-up effort put on by the East Portland Neighborhood Organization, individual neighborhoods also hold low-key efforts.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Argay Terrace and Lents neighborhoods held their clean-up events – and got amazing results.

Lents Neighborhood Association

Instead of having one site, these neighbors make it easy for folks to “do it themselves” by placing monitored dumpsters at eight sites around the Lents area.
“Thanks to a grant from the City of Portland,” said Judy Welch, one of the organizers told us, “we make it easy for neighbors get rid of trash, refuse and yard debris.”

This means, Welch told us, the trash doesn’t get illegally dumped, or left in neighbors’ yards. “People want to respect their neighborhood; and it’s hard to have respect for it when it’s full of trash and refuse.”

Argay Terrace Neighborhood Association

Neighbor David Piel is being checked in by volunteer Jane Roffey Berry.

Valerie Curry voiced similar sentiments that day – but, up north in Argay. “We couldn’t do it without the help of our volunteers – with special thanks to Parkrose High School Soccer Team members who are really ‘pitching-in’ today.”

The numbers … please!

At Argay’s site, about 16 tons was collected; and across those eight sites in Lents, the scales weighed in 24.2 tons of trash.

In total, the two neighborhood efforts removed more than 35 TONS of refuse from their respective areas. Congratulations to both for helping make outer East Portland a little nicer place to live!

High atop a nearly-filled filled dumpster, Parkrose High School Soccer Team members Matt Cates, Matt Dickie, Michael Deyle, and Christian Meza stack trash at the Argay Neighborhood cleanup.

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