NORWAY — A resident is looking for people to pitch in for a downtown cleanup.

Art Gouin, 81, of Maple Street is planning to start the event at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 15. He said individuals picking up trash in certain areas of the town have made a noticeable difference, and feels a large-scale effort will also be successful.

The former owner of L.F. Pike & Son clothing store on Main Street said he saw two boys picking up trash on the back side of Pleasant Street and a girl doing the same along upper Main Street toward Norway Lake and thought, “I better go talk about this. There’s enough (trash) out there to go around.”

So this spring he talked to Town Manager David Holt, who backed the idea of a downtown cleanup.

Gouin said Hannaford has donated 140 trash bags and he’s looking for “captains” to organize volunteers and hand them out in five different areas of town. They are:

• Route 26 from Aubuchon Hardware to the Oxford town line. Volunteers will meet at the Aubuchon Hardware parking lot.
• Main Street, Paris Street and Fair Street. Volunteers will meet at the parking lot of the Ripley Medical Building.
• Main Street from Paris Street to Cumberland Farms, with inclusive side roads. Volunteers will meet at Witherell Park on Lynn Street.
• Main Street and inclusive side roads from Lynn Street to Whitman Street. Volunteers will meet at the parking lot beside L.F. Pike and Son.
• Main Street from Whitman Street to Lake Pennesseewassee. Volunteers will meet at the Norway Grange on Whitman Street.

Participants may also clean up Pennesseewasee Stream, which runs behind Main Street to the south, and Bird Brook, which flows through town into Pennesseewassee Stream.

Gouin is also looking for four or five pickup trucks to be available at the staging areas to take the collected litter to the transfer station. He said volunteers should bring their own gloves and other materials.

“Safety is the most important factor in all of this, that you don’t get out into the street or oncoming traffic or anything of that sort,” he said.

Anyone interested in volunteering should call Gouin at 743-6836.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com

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