TURNER – Organizers of Sunday’s Nezinscot River cleanup expect to retrieve as much as 3,000 pounds of debris from the waterway and its shores. But that’s less than half the waste that was collected a year ago, the first formal cleaning of the riverway in years.

“Last year this event gathered over 7,500 pounds of garbage,” said Eric Goodwin. “This year we expect anywhere between 1,500 and 3,000 pounds.”

The event is being staged in connection with National River Cleanup Week, which kicks off Saturday, May 15.

Goodwin said people who want to help with the cleanup should gather at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the Turner Town Office at the corner of routes 4 and 117. People can call Goodwin at 235-2591 or e-mail him at www.communitiesgettinginvolved.org if they need more information or want to be included in the list of helpers.

“We still need more volunteers, with or without canoes,” Goodwin noted.

“Some people will be walking to pick up garbage” during the cleanup, he said, “some shuttling garbage and people, and others (will be) on the water.”

The second annual Nezinscot cleanup is organized by Communities Getting Involved, a nonprofit entity created by Goodwin a year ago to help form community bonds.

He said the Nezinscot serves as a connection for people living in communities from Woodstock to Turner, places where the river and its tributaries flow.

“We will also be holding a Friends of the Nezinscot meeting at 7 p.m. on June 15 at the Turner Town Office,” Goodwin said.

“We are trying to get an organization together to look out for the future of the Nezinscot from Woodstock to Turner, both branches,” and including the tributaries.