An effort to clean up riverside homeless camps in Aberdeen on Thursday saw volunteers, city personnel and campers working shoulder-to-shoulder to clear the trash that had overrun the area.
The effort comes several weeks after the city of Aberdeen posted notices to vacate the camps along the Chehalis River, then later deemed the notices — issued on private property — unenforceable. The city now has plans to issue trespassing notices, Mayor Bill Simpson said Tuesday.
Shaney Frame Crosby, an Aberdeen resident who organized the event largely through Facebook, brought 300 white plastic bags to the camps by late Thursday morning.
“Pretty simply, it needs done,” Crosby said of the clean-up effort. “I found out these guys are in crisis of losing where they live because they’re living in dump-like conditions.”
Local garbage collection service LeMay Inc. donated the bags, Crosby said, as well as the cost for disposal — volunteers simply needed to get the garbage to the landfill. Local attorney and mayoral candidate Jack Micheau also gave Crosby a gift card to Dennis Company to buy shovels, rakes and other cleaning equipment.
Crosby said she plans to donate the tools to Clean Streams and Memes, a local group headed by Josh Francy that organizes riverside clean-ups.
By 11 a.m., a few more volunteers were at work on Rick Marcoe’s camp, one of the first along the road on the eastern end of the property. Marcoe already had several bags filled and on the roadside, but said he was happy to have the help.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “It’s just not natural, I guess. It’s wonderful to know somebody cares.”
Among the volunteers cleaning around Marcoe’s camp was Aberdeen resident Lauri Paulsen, who had heard about the event on Facebook. Paulsen was spending her day off helping with the clean-up.
“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” she said.
Gail Morehouse, another Aberdeen resident, said she knows the city’s homeless problem well, herself having spent time at local women and children shelter Friendship House, as well as other shelters in Seattle. Morehouse, was also helping at Marcoe’s campsite.
“I’m always on Facebook screaming about this,” she said. “I’m just really glad this is starting to happen, so whatever I can do to help, I will do.”
The effort also caught the attention of city workers. By 1 p.m., Steve Randich, the city’s street maintenance supervisor, had dispatched several backhoes and dump trucks to the site at the request of Rick Sangder, the city’s public works director.
Sangder was not available for comment as of press time.
The backhoes and dump trucks were used to collect and transport the heaps of trash that had accumulated at many camps. Some piles, campers and volunteers noted, included hypodermic needles.
Simpson, who had come down at about noon to see the area, met briefly with Michael Bymer, a camper who had lived on the river for about a year. Later in the afternoon, Simpson said he was happy to see people making the effort to clean the area.
Shirley Owens, another camper, said she was amazed at how the voices of only a few people had resulted in the effort that came Thursday.
“I was so excited and encouraged,” she said about hearing the news of the clean-up. “I know it’s filthy down here, but it came from a lot of people living here. I think we can make something out of this place.”
Kyle Mittan, 360-537-3932, kmittan@thedailyworld.com. Twitter: @KyleMittan
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