Rotarians step up to clean highway

MOSES LAKE — The Rotary Club of Moses Lake spent some time Wednesday making the roadside look better. 

“We’re just trying to make the community look better, more attractive,” said club President Sean Jenks. “The city was asking for volunteers to come help around town, and we thought it would be a great opportunity to jump in and take part in that.”

About 25 volunteers and a few workers from the city of Moses Lake were on the south side of SR 17 at the Stratford Road interchange Wednesday morning, picking up trash in the tall grass. The group planned to spend about two hours on the project, Jenks said.

Jenks said he drives past the SR 17-Stratford Road interchange every day to work, and it was clearly in need of some tidying, he said.

“It looked like there was so much garbage around,” he said. “I’ve lived in third world countries before, and this looked like it was getting pretty ugly. I thought well, maybe this is an opportunity to clean some of it up.”

When he learned that the city was seeking volunteers to tackle jobs like this one, it seemed like a perfect fit, he said.

“It’s the main exit into town for all these stores, and I thought, if we want to attract people to this town, we need to be attractive,” he said.

The project could lead to a more formal effort in the future, said city Code Enforcement Officer Tina Jewell, who was helping at the site.

“This is the first time the city has partnered with the Rotary Club to do cleanup,” Jewell said. “We’re looking to do more cleanup event in partnership with other groups and the state, and hopefully we’ll be able to get the Adopt-a-Highway program running through the city.”

Washington’s Adopt-a-Highway program is the state’s way of keeping roads clean and instilling pride, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s website. The WSDOT contracts with a group of volunteers like Rotary to pick up litter on a two- to four-mile stretch of highway for four years at a time. Generally, that entails going out to clean up about four times a year, according to the WSDOT. WSDOT provides traffic control equipment, litter bags and safety equipment and disposes of the trash for volunteers. The department will also install road signs recognizing the volunteers.

The Rotary Club of Moses Lake celebrated its 75th birthday earlier this year. The club has engaged in many civic projects over the years, including the clock at Third Avenue and Ash Street, the fully accessible Ashley’s Playground at McCosh Park and improvements to the Moses Lake Skate Park.

“Rotary is service to the community, service to others,” said Rotarian James Yonko. “We like helping Moses Lake.”