The City of Middletown Public Works Department has generously offered to provide cleanup supplies, and help by disposing of trash and recyclables. Any additional donations from businesses to help with the cleanup, such as snacks for the volunteers, would also be appreciated!
Source to Sea Cleanup is an annual four-state community cleanup of the Connecticut River and tributaries coordinated by the Connecticut River Conservancy. As a volunteer you will be one of thousands working watershed-wide on the same day to clean up our watershed.
If you would like to participate as a volunteer, please go to the online sign-up page. If you would like to make a donation, please contact the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District at (860) 346-3282, or ctrivercoastal@conservect.org.
The Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Middletown, CT, works to conserve the natural resources of towns in the lower Connecticut River watershed and coastal areas. For more information about District technical and educational programs and services, visit our website at www.conservect.org/ctrivercoastal.
5 comments:
"The City of Middletown Public Works Department has generously offered to provide cleanup supplies, and help by disposing of trash and recyclables."
I believe a more accurate statement would be "The Middletown taxpayers have generously offered to provide cleanup supplies, and paying for DPW employees and city equipment help in disposing of trash and recyclables."
Just to clarify:
Last year a non-profit organization and a city commission worked with over two dozen volunteers (both residents and nonresidents) for several hours to clean up a city park at no cost to the taxpayer except for some gloves, trash bags, and the removal of the trash. While the best solution would be for people to stop leaving trash along rivers and at city parks, the Commission on Conservation and Agriculture is pleased to be able to work with the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District and any willing volunteers to repeat the effort this year.
With thanks,
Elisabeth Holder
Chair - CCA
Thank you anonymous at 4:53. Of course, the Middletown taxpayers did not agree to these generosities—which is, I suppose, your point. The author of the river cleanup notice attributed the generosity to City of Middletown Public Works Department, which many readers would perceive, almost subconsciously, as a synecdoche for its director—also your point. One can easily imagine that such favor dispensation goes on all the time, particularly for volunteer organizations that possess broad cultural and social capital. Possibly you also wished to draw attention to this possibility.
Fortunately the river cleanup notice was posted after the Democratic primary, in which the director was a candidate for mayoral nominee.
It does pose a problem, however. Should the Public Works Department not aid in efforts to beautify the city? Maybe we should ask the question in a different way: why isn’t Public Works not already engaged in such efforts as a matter of course?
As a taxpayer, I see no problem with the City donating a small amount of resources to a volunteer effort such as this. The small amount donated to this far outweighs the cost of the city performing this same work in-house, which would take far more resources, funds, and man-hours. If a volunteer organization is willing to perform the work themselves, and it comes at a cost savings compared to in-house work, I dont see where the issue is with giving them a small amount of support. If the support number were to grow close to the in-house costs, I could see the concern, but in this situation, it's simply not the case.
Anon @ 8:00am
You're putting words in my mouth. I just wanted to point out that the generosity of DPW was with taxpayer money, so that's who should be thanked. I don't think it was bad to do. You may be right about the other things you said, but don't paint me with your brush.
Anon @ 4:53
Post a Comment