Trash mob keeps Soap Lake clean

SOAP LAKE — A group of volunteers is making a difference in Soap Lake one ‘mob’ at a time.

Every so often the call goes out for volunteers for a one-hour “trash mob'' to clean up different areas of Soap Lake.

The most recent call went out to clean up the firework debris from East Beach Park on July 5. About a dozen volunteers showed up early Tuesday morning with bags, gloves and rakes.

“We love our community (and want to) keep it clean and help our guys out that work so hard to maintain the park and do our part,” said Lisa Carlson.

The mob works to clean areas of Soap Lake, most commonly the parks, to ease the burden on the handful of city workers and to make the parks a more enjoyable place.

Alex Kovach said part of the issue is that the Soap Lake park budget is not very big so the city’s four public workers are not only responsible for the sewer and water and other city functions but for keeping up the parks as well, which can be a lot to handle, especially around events like the Fourth of July that brings a lot of tourism, and trash, to the city parks.

This may be the last time for a while that the mob will need to clean up after fireworks, however, as the Soap Lake City Council voted to ban fireworks in Soap Lake for Fourth of July 2023 and most likely the years following.

Ric Carlson said he has mixed feelings about fireworks being banned in Soap Lake because he hates seeing things banned, like fireworks, but that it is disrespectful that so many people leave their fireworks trash behind for others to clean up. Ric acknowledged the ban makes sense since the area is so dry and flammable coupled with windy weather.

“But then you see this and it's like, you know what, if they can't be responsible then … all these people picking up after them, it's ridiculous, and especially since they had two big dumpsters here and apparently they were absolutely empty this morning,” said Ric.

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.