2022 Clean Sweep Awards

Many thanks to everyone involved with Shelton Clean Sweep. Once again, people rolled up their sleeves and worked to beautify their neighborhoods, parks, and school by cleaning up litter. 

Every year the Anti-Litter Committee selects Clean Sweep Volunteer of the Year Awards in three categories: individual, business, and group. It's a tough decision every year. The Committee looks through the clean-ups that were recorded via the online reporting form to see how much various people picked up. Many clean-up projects are not recorded online or reported to us, and therefore could not be considered for an award (sorry!).  Members of the Litter Committee do not qualify, nor do Adopt-a-Street participants (because this is for Clean Sweep).  So here we go: 

Business Category:
Richemont North America

The Business Category was taken by Richemont North America for removing litter from Shelton High School. Nice job!

Individual Category: 
Ellen Cramp

Ellen Cramp once again earned the award in the Individual Category. Ellen picks up litter year-round and also works on our hiking trails. For Clean Sweep 2022, she picked up litter from Coram Road and Oak Valley Trail. Give Ellen a round of applause. 

Group Category:
Olde Ripton Garden Club

The Olde Ripton Garden Club was given the Award in the Group Category. The club picked up litter from the Huntington Green and Ripton Road, continuing their efforts to beautify Shelton. Good work!

Community Engagement Award:
Shelton Clean Up Project

A fourth award was handed out for 2022: A Community Engagement Award to Shelton Clean Up Project. This group started as a pandemic Facebook Group of people who arranged sporadic meeting places to pick up litter throughout the year. The group has evolved and now posts a schedule of upcoming work parties open to the general public. High school students can have their community service forms signed by attended one of their events.  Standing ovation! 

Many thanks to our award winners and to everyone who picked up even just a little bit of litter for Clean Sweep. Many hands make light work. 

Shelton's "Top Ten" List

The Anti-Litter Committee has created a "Top Ten" list of locations in Shelton that have a chronic litter problems: 

1. Indian Well Road, including parking areas
2. Beard Sawmill Road under Route 8
3. Canal Street (north end)
4. Bridgeport Ave. between Commerce Drive and Constitution Blvd. 
5. Pootatuck Place (behind Hilton Garden Inn)
6. Todd Road
7. "Four Corners" (Booth Hill & Mohegan Roads)
8. All Route 8 entrances/exits
9. Mill Street
10. Nells Rock Road between Oak Valley Road and Bridgeport Ave. 

Leavenworth and River Road were saved for later because Committee members had not been able to narrow down which portions were most in need of attention. 

The Committee decided to focus on the top three over the summer. Indian Well Road is particularly problematic after hot summer weekends when the state parks is busy.  Beard Sawmill Road under Route 8 is a location the City was already focusing on. And the north end of Canal Street is scheduled for a cleanup this summer by the "Shelton Clean Up Project" group. 

Four of the Top Ten locations are on state properties (Indian Well Road, Beard-Sawmill under Route 8, Bridgeport Ave, and the Route 8 ramps), which will be more difficult to address.  The City of Shelton cannot implement its Adopt-a-Street Program on State of Connecticut property, and the State has limited staff for cleaning up highways. The State does have its own Adopt-a-Highway Program, but the Anti-Litter Committee reviewed the program over ten years ago and found it to be too onerous to recommend. Perhaps it has been updated. 

Gearing up for 2022

The 15th annual Shelton Clean Sweep will be held April 16-24, 2022 (the week of Earth Day).  As always, bags and gloves will be supplied. Each  year we offer a free iron-on patch to participants, which features a red fox for 2022. The patches are especially popular with Scouting groups. The DontTrashShelton.org website will be updated soon with more information, but you can register a cleanup now using this form. 

Shelton's Clean Sweep program was effectively sidelined for the last two years due to the pandemic, but things are gearing back up for 2022. Although we did run Clean Sweep both years, participation was very low. Connecticut was shut down in April of 2020, cancelling all the scheduled clean-ups, and in early 2021 many Scouting groups were still hesitant to commit to events. Bad weather cancelled the few that were scheduled. We're hoping that 2022 the year Shelton Clean Sweep gets back in gear.

New members needed! The Anti-Litter Committee has not met since early 2020 and during that time lost a few members. We bid farewell to long-time member Ron Pilkowicz, who moved away, and Sheri Dutkanicz, who has work scheduling conflicts. They will be missed. Monthly meetings are expected to resume after the Omicron surge abates, but the Committee is in need of new members. Active members now include Gil Pastore (Chair), David Edgeworth, Joe Welsh, and Teresa Gallagher. If you would like to join the Litter Committee, please send an email to conservation@cityofshelton.org.  Meetings are held the 4th Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm in City Hall. 

Join a public cleanup: During the pandemic, a new Facebook Group formed called Shelton Clean Up Project. The group has organized a number of clean-up events open to the general public. The group is not affiliated with the City of Shelton, although we do support their efforts by supplying bags and gloves as needed and hauling away the accumulated trash. The same is true of Housatonic River Clean Up, an event held each spring in Milford, Stratford, Orange, and Shelton. 

2018 Clean Sweep Volunteers of the Year

The City of Shelton announces its 2018 Clean Sweep "Volunteer of the Year" Awards. 

Hundreds of people participated in Shelton's annual Clean Sweep event last April by removing litter from their neighborhood streets, parks, and waterways. All participants were eligible for free custom iron-on patches, which featured the Hope Lake dam in 2018, as well as certificates of appreciation signed by the Mayor. 

Each year, the City also give special recognition to a few of its most active volunteers: 

Individual Category: Lisa Sutton

Lisa Sutton has been picking up litter around Shelton for years. One of the places she often cleans up is the Gristmill Trail area on Mill Street along the Far Mill River.  The two parking areas and the fishing area around the dam are often a mess and she cleans that up. She's also picked up litter from other trailhead parking areas like the one at Eklund Garden at Shelton Lakes,  from church parking lots, and from roadsides. One of Ms Sutton's pet peeves are cigarette butts, which contain plastic and are not biodegradable. 

Group Category: Boy Scout Troop 28

Troop 28 has a tradition of removing large piles of debris from Shelton's Public Open Space, and they did it again in 2018. They chose a location near the Shelton Lakes Community Garden and hiking trails where abandoned junk was scattered along an area filled with thorny brush. The debris included four tires and rims, a hot water tank, a large metal desk, an old toilet, a mattress, aluminum siding, two lawn mowers, two 55-gallon drums, 6 large bags of smaller items, and other debris. Plot holders at the nearby community garden were especially happy to see the junk removed from the woods. 

Business Category: Tighe and Bond

Employees at Tighe and Bond's Shelton office (1000 Bridgeport Ave.) once again cleaned up portions of Isinglass Road and Huntington Street that abut the land around Trap Falls Reservoir. They filled thirty-five large trash bags with litter and removed other items such as car parts and buckets. Tighe and Bond offers engineering and environmental consulting services. 

For more information about Shelton Clean Sweep or it's Adopt-a-Street program, visit DontTrashShelton.org or contact Teresa Gallagher at conservation@cityofshelton.org

Our First Annual Fall Cleanup

The Anti-Litter Committee announces it's first annual fall clean-up to be held at Riverview Park on Saturday, September 30 from 8:30 - 10:30 am. Meet at the playground on the north end of the park, located near the intersection of CT 110 (Howe Ave) and Wheeler Street. (See Google map for driving directions). We will have garbage bags.

Riverview Park. The Bluff Walk is the black dashed line. 

This cleanup is open to all, no registration required. While the Parks Department does pick up the manicured areas you can see from Howe Avenue, there is a wooded slope going down to the river with a walking path called "The Bluff Walk" that was built over 100 years ago. Litter tends to blow in from Rt 110 down the hill and collect along the slope. The trail is about half a mile long.

Shelton's First Park and oldest walking path

We have a few extra 2017 Clean Sweep Patches leftover and these will be given away to participants first come first serve. Hope to see you there.

Clean Sweep 2017

The "Plavec Group" in Huntington Woods

People across Shelton hit the streets, parks, schools, and waterways for the 10th annual Shelton Clean Sweep, held the week of Earth Day (April 22). There were twenty-five registered cleanups around town and many more that were not registered. Many thanks to everyone involved!

Girl Scout Troop 60672 cleaned up Mohegan School

It's hard to believe the first Shelton Clean Sweep was ten years ago, and the 10-year old kids who participated are now adults. We hope the participation of so many kids will foster an appreciation of litter-free parks and streets in future generations.

Tighe & Bond employees cleaned up Isinglass Road.

We encourage people to report their cleanups, although it seems most people would prefer not to. The 'report a clean-up' form is for all litter cleanups across Shelton, not just for Clean Sweep, and helps us determine how much is getting picked up. The link to report is easy to find on the DontTrashShelton.org webpage, on the left margin. Seventeen cleanups involving 122 people were reported via this link during the Clean Sweep 2017 period:

Shelton High Period 2 Civics Class	Shelton High School front area	4 medium sized bags	14
Sheri Dutkanicz	Nells Rock Road	1 large bag	1
Pack 24 - Booth Hill School	Booth Hill School	14 plastic shopping bags	14
GS troop 60672	Mohegan school	1/2 of a large bag	11 7 year olds
The Pastores	Seneca Road	One large bag and a load of Jack Daniels bottles	3
Stusalitus Family	Canfield Drive open space along roadside	1 small tire, 1 ice chest, 3 large bags mostly liquor bottles & fast food trash	3
Girl Scout Troop 60294	Cali Drive	1 large bag and 1 small bag	10
Carreira Family	Regan Circle, Wooster Street	2 large bags	4
Boy Scout Troop 28	Shelton Lakes Path	6 tires, vinyl siding, part of a large tractor, a furnace, 2 air conditioners, a car transmission, front and back seat of an old car, 10 additional bags of garbage	24
Plavec Group	Balsam Circle, Wesley Drive and Shelton Rec Path Parallel	One large 42 gal trash bag	3
Tighe & Bond	Isinglass Road at the intersection of Huntington Street	15 Large Bags, tire, car parts	4
Gil Pastore	Farmill River from Yutaka Trail to Farmill Crossing	4 large bags & beach ball	3
MOMS Club of Shelton	Riverview Park, surrounding play area.	3 large bags	5
Mikayla Wsilewski/Janie Hulton	Wabuda. Rt108	4 large bags	2
Daisy Troop 60396	Shelton High School	10 bags- filled as much as a Daisy could carry! :) (about 1/2 filled)	18
Devin Mitola	Sunnyside Elementary	1 large garbage bag	2
Fernando Alves	Area around interesection of Meadow Street and Shelton Avenue	2 large bags	1

Old Wrestling Platform and Tires -- So Many Tires

Work in progress.  So many tires.

There was an impressive old wrestling platform in the open space off of Pine Tree Hill and Beech Tree Hill Road, covered in vines and vegetation, and resting on a mountain of stacked tires. It was on our wishlist for cleanup for several years before Chris Vickers rose to the challenge. In addition to being unsightly during winter months, the tires were breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

BEFORE

AFTER - WOW!

Chris had to clear the vegetation, cut the platform up with a chainsaw, and took about 100 tires to the transfer station. But there are still more tires to haul out, and Chris is looking for help to get the job finished. Calling all Scouts! If there are any troop out there willing to help, please contact Teresa at conservation@cityofshelton.org.