City
Mattresses, tires, chairs: Cachers collect 230 bags of trash
Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Boy Scout Jeremy Bernier, right, of Auburn helps unload a van of bulky trash at Marcotte Park in Lewiston on Saturday. Bernier, a Life Scout with Troop 160 of Lewiston, organized the “Twin City CITO” event to fulfill the requirements of the Eagle Scout Leadership/Service Project. Volunteers spread out and collected trash from Geocaching sites in Lewiston and Auburn. "Cache In Trash Out" is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the geocaching community.
Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
"I was not expecting this much at this point," said Boy Scout Jeremy Bernier of the amount of garbage he and some volunteers had collected by noon Saturday — "maybe by the end of the day, but not now."
LEWISTON — The kitchen sink found in the woods off the Park and Ride by I-95 raised an eyebrow. The abandoned beds, tires and couch were tame, if unexpected.
"What I chuckled at most: I found a toilet out there," said Kurt Cedergren, 30 feet from a growing pile of trash at Marcotte Park where he'd brought his finds.
On Saturday, the Lewiston man and 20 others took part in Cache In Trash Out, an event organized by 16-year-old Boy Scout Jeremy Bernier, a cacher himself who's going for his Eagle Scout rank.
People fanned out into woods around the Twin Cities, simultaneously using their global positioning system devices to uncover cache spots — frequently where someone has hidden a journal or memento — and pulling out furniture, tires and you-name-it along the way.
Bernier said he'd been inspired to lead the event after a peek at the woods behind Marden's. That same spot was where most of the day's old, dirty mattresses came from. People also found refrigerators and a stove behind the Main Street store.
Jim Leeman served as the day's cache master. He helped with a map highlighting known trash spots around both cities. He didn't wonder how a sink got in the woods, so much as why.
"There's no need of it," he said.
Leeman said lots of geocaching involves walking on public land and when access to that land is sometimes shut down, they frequently learn that people got too tired of litter being left behind. Events like CITO, happening all over the world since 2002, help counter that by showing that cachers respect the land, he said, and hopefully it encourages open access.
Phil Dehetre of Richmond had done similar events before but got his biggest load ever on Saturday by hitting River Road. When he pulled in to Marcotte Park, truck bed heaped over, Bernier and his friends pulled on blue rubber gloves and unloaded an old computer monitor, almost a dozen tires, a random, rusted 6-foot pipe and a green upholstered chair.
Dehetre and his son Justin, 12, and daughter Mikayla, 10, had been out for two hours.
"We had to leave two couches behind," he said.
Bernier, a member of Troop 160 and a junior at Edward Little High School, said most participants made more than one run, bringing back tires, a cot frame, a carpet and even a laundry basket. Lewiston Public Works agreed in advance to haul off whatever the group collected.
At the end of the day, they picked up the equivalent of 230 bags of trash, more than he'd hoped, Bernier said.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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how do you like the
how do you like the geocachers now Thorncraig bird sanctuary! Thorncraig doesnt believe in having geocachers on its trails, so be it. we'll gather for trail help at all the other places, so we dont need you!
verified Read it right, want to have
Read it right, want to have lunch ? Where ? Alice's Restaurant of course !!!! :)
You know it! Thanksgiving is
You know it! Thanksgiving is upon us.
When they charge fees for
When they charge fees for dumping stuff.....people will find other places to stash it for free. Go walking along a deserted road and look down over the banks.....you'll find lots of junk.
verified Yes Sir! I did put the
Yes Sir! I did put the envelope under all that trash.
"They took twenty seven
"They took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us."
The city should cut the the
The city should cut the the trees there and fill it all up with land fill this will continue always until its filled ITS LIKE A DUMP NEAR WHERE KIDS WALK BY IT SCHOOL EVERYDAY I AM SURE WITH TOLETS AND BEDS THE AREA MUST SMELL AS THE MAYOR WOULD SAY LETS CLEAN UP LEWISTON FILL THE HOLE AT MARCOTT TO STOP THIS PROBLEM
LAZY PEOPLE..
LAZY PEOPLE..
verified Why leave it at Marcotte
Why leave it at Marcotte Park? I realize the place is usually pretty trashy, but some kids use the playground. I think the Lewiston City Dump would have been a better place to put the trash. Perhaps bobby could get you the key and help you get it there.
As a person who participated
As a person who participated in the event, Marcotte Park was centrally located to where everyone was working. You don't need to worry about the trash that was brought there, because Lewiston Public Works has agreed to haul the trash off. And as far as Marcotte being trashy...you are very wrong about that. The park is very clean.
verified First, no where in the
First, no where in the article does it say someone is going to remove the trash, seems like something you should have included.
Two, while Marcotte Park may seem to be 'centrally located' the Lewiston Dump, or Auburn Dump for that matter, would also be 'centrally located' since everyone seem to have transportation
Three, bringing trash to the dump would have save hundreds, if not thousands, of city workers salaries, important with tight city budgets.
Four, as someone who has been to and used Marcotte Park for over fifty years, 'very clean' are words that would have described it decades ago, not now.
"Lewiston Public Works
"Lewiston Public Works agreed in advance to haul off whatever the group collected."
Reading, the lost art.
***********
[Insert juvenile political statement here]
tron, perhaps you should
tron, perhaps you should spend your posts apologizing for last week when your complained loudly that Scouts never did service projects anymore - further proof of your errored comments (again). Congratulations to Jeremy for the great project - while I don;t kow him, it sounds like it was a successful day. Geography lesson for tron - put a marker on marcotte point and compare it to other locations that could have been used as a gathering spot FOR THOSE PARTICIPATING and then maybe you'll understand the concept of centralized location - duh!
Bob, you just can't resist
Bob, you just can't resist adding in an insult to everything you say. You will not be missed on City Council and I wish you would leave the blogs as well.
Nancy, why not take a minute
Nancy, why not take a minute and read some on tron's posts before pointing fingers at me? He came into this very topic (and several related to it over the past 2 weeks)and made comments about me and insulted the project and the hard work done by lots of people in this community. He made it personal, not me. As to leaving the blog & politics - I'm not done with politics, I will be back shortly, this was simply to take care of a medical matter and have sone time with my sons before they finish high school and move on to college, and i will be on the blog anytime I wish to be.
verified hey bobby, bringing the
hey bobby, bringing the trash to a place that processes trash makes more sense than anything you care to blather about. Now how many scouts are there in LA? A couple of hundred? ONE scout does something and all of a sudden scouts are doing community service projects? ONE??? And if I read thing correctly, he did it NOT for public service, but to gain some sort of scouting notoriety. Truly selfless, right?
Tron, are you kidding me -
Tron, are you kidding me - the landfill is only open till noon on Saturday and this was an all day project - and the cost of having city staff work all day Saturday would have caused more complaining from folks when you consider the potential overtime we would have to pay. Also - to call a young man earning the rank of Eagle Scout "some sort of Scouting notoreity" is a huge insult to the many eagle scouts in this country, including several previous presidents! The entire concept of an Eagle project is to do something for your community. As to selfless, how do you account for all the others who show up to assist on an eagle project - they get absolutely nothing but thanks for their work, and frankly, they also have to listen to those who criticize Scouting and eagle projects such as yourself - I challenge you to undertake an Eagle project - design, implementation and follow up and see what it takes to earn Scouting's highest award.
verified Continue flogging a dead
Continue flogging a dead horse, bobby. BTW, name ONE eagle scout who was ever elected President of the United States. Or two!
As the organizer of the
As the organizer of the event in question, I am personally offended by your comments.
I am very active in my community; I have helped out at the Auburn Public Library several times, and I also help out at our troop's food drive every year since I joined the troop. Many scouts and scouters in our troop have participated in and organized many community service events - blood drives, food drives, helping out at religious functions, etc.
Yes, it is true I did not simply organize this event for helping the community - I did it to attain the rank of Eagle Scout. Surely you are not implying that there is something wrong with becoming an Eagle Scout?
And what about the four Eagle scouts from our troop (including the aforementioned Jim Leeman, and "Daniel3160" who replied above) who helped out at the event? Were they only doing it to gain notoriety?
And if you had read the article you would know that the Lewiston Public Works agreed to haul off the trash.
I'm sorry if this comes off as a bit rude, but your comments have come off as rude. Just because I am doing public service for another reason other than public service doesn't make it any less helpful to the community. Would you rather have the trash we found back out in the parks?
Jeremy, great job on the
Jeremy, great job on the project, while some would choose to do a blood drive or other smaller accomplishment, you stepped up and showed why Scouting produces so many great leaders. Bravo! My 1st son spent entire weekends with volunteers canvassing Lewiston to make sure homes had numbers on them for emergency personnel to recognize and got donations to purchase the numbers for those in need. My second son managed a demolition and insulation project at a local church, saving that church over $20,000 had they hired out to do the same work. I look forward to seeing my third son exceed both those projects as the bar is set higher and higher!
Of all the people to
Of all the people to congratulate me, I would never expect Bob Reed of 007, especially given I'm a 160 scout. lol!
verified He's doing it to spite me,
He's doing it to spite me, Trust me, he's a very little man, despite his size.
Well said jbernier 93! It is
Well said jbernier 93! It is unfortunate that others have become so jaded that they can not/will not see the positive effects that the Boy Scouts have chosen to make in the community. Congratulations on a job well done!
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