07/12/2007: "The Town Deserves A Round Of Applause"

By Lori Stokes

Did you happen to look around – REALLY look around—at the Town’s streets and sidewalks when you came to see the parade on July 4th? I hope you did, because you would have noticed a big difference in how clean the Town is these days. This year’s budget included the addition of a new employee who, along with other Town employees, is spending a part of his time picking up litter as well as washing down streets and sidewalks.

I used to do nothing but complain about how dirty the Town was. I was embarrassed to live in a place where residents and tourists alike simply had to put up with cigarette butts, dirty napkins, empty soda cans and water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, etc. that had been carelessly (or deliberately) dropped and then simply left where they had fallen.

I guess I’m going to have to find something else to complain about. Now when I’m out walking my pooch early in the morning, I almost always encounter a Town employee sweeping a sidewalk or a gutter, emptying a trash can, driving a truck that is washing the street, or using that wonderful leaf blower that sucks up litter when you put it in its “reverse” gear. In the olden days, I would pass by a candy wrapper in the alley by the movie theater, and that same candy wrapper would linger there for weeks and weeks. Now if I pass by a candy wrapper in the alley, it’s gone by the very next day.

Three cheers for the incredible effort the Town is putting in to help make Friday Harbor look its very best. And three cheers for all the islanders who have gotten Captain Pick-It Up’s message that litter simply doesn’t belong in this beautiful place.

(Lori Stokes is a member of the San Juan Island Anit-Litter Initiative)