Volunteers clean up downtown ML, plant trees

MOSES LAKE — The downtown core of Moses Lake is tidier due to the work of about 75 people at the Downtown Moses Lake Association’s annual Spring Cleaning Saturday morning.

“I expected to see more trash, but we did a lot of picking up of weeds,” said Sara Guadarrama, “Weeds and cigarette butts.”

Guadarrama and her coworker Kari Rodriguez were part of a group from Moses Lake Industries who came out together. Other local companies also came out in force for the event.

“Moses Lake Industries and Sila Nanotechnologies wanted to work together for an Earth Day collab,” Rodriguez said. “We coordinated with the city and with DMLA … I saw a bunch of people from LocalTel and a couple of people from Genie. There a lot of groups out here.”

About 75 people came out altogether, Guadarrama said.

“I think we had more people here than we did last year,” City Council Member Joel Graves said. “It was a huge turnout, old to young. We had some little (ones), we had some families come out, we had some older people.”

“And a dog,” DMLA Executive Director Mallory Miller added. “I should have brought treats.”

The cleanup has been a DMLA tradition in Moses Lake for many years. With grabbers, gloves and trash bags donated by Lowe’s, volunteers went street by street and alley by alley picking up whatever had blown around or been tossed on the ground. This year, the scope of the operation increased to include the lake shore at Neppel Landing.

“There was quite a bit down along the steep edge (of the lake), said David Champoux. “Lots of stuff from fishermen, probably some (from) homeless people.”

“It was a good experience, especially since I used to run there,” said Nahir Vasquez.

Vasquez and Champoux had filled a bag with about 15 pounds of debris, they said.

“I think a lot of the weight was because there was a lot of plastic in the water,” Champoux said. “… Lots of beer cans and plastic bags.”

Besides cleaning up Neppel Landing, volunteers also planted two oak trees at the park.

“They’ll be ready in 70 years,” Miller said.

“We love that the Downtown Moses Lake Association made this an annual thing,” Graves said. “We want to do more of it. There’s a huge untapped potential of people who want to see our city cleaned up. The whole city is wrapping its arms around this.”

    Volunteers wrangle an oak tree into the ground at Neppel Landing Saturday morning, in conjunction with the Downtown Moses Lake Association’s Spring Cleaning.
  

    The DMLA’s Spring Cleaning brought out helpers of all ages to collect trash in the downtown core.