Havre Pride marks spring cleanup on Saturday

Havreites will gather to help clean up their city Saturday morning.

“We need everybody out there,” said Kim Cripps, the longtime chair of Havre Pride.

Twice a year — at springtime and the week before Festival Days — Havre Pride organizes the effort to pick up trash around the city.

Cripps said the volunteers will help clean the winter’s collection of trash from the streets and sidewalks.

People will gather at 5th Avenue and 1st Street at 8:30 a.m., Cripps said. Volunteers will be given trash bags they can take with them.

She said she hopes downtown areas will be covered by volunteers and that some people will fan out into the neighborhoods.

She said she will give some people tips on where they can go, or they can just go back to their neighborhoods.

Cripps said areas such as the land near Holiday Village Mall, the Kmart and Walmart areas, the legion ballfields and the Havre Middle School area are often especially messy.

After people have filled up the bags, they can return them to the large trash bins at 5th Avenue and 1st Street.

Another bin will be set up at Zip Trip convenience store in Highland Park for residents in that neighborhood, she said.

Usually, service groups such as the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts take part, along with Havre Area Chamber of Commerce member and individual families who want to help out and teach their children the importance of having a clean city.

Cripps said she is especially excited that Headstart programs will take part in the project Friday, though they can’t make it Saturday.

“This teaches them a valuable lesson on civic pride,” she said.

Havre Pride officially ends at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, she said, but the Dumpsters will remain up at 5th Avenue and Zip Trip all weekend, and if people want to pick up trash any time over the weekend, they can call her at 265-0905, and she will see to it that they get the bags.

Simultaneous to Havre Pride, there will be the monthly recycling drive at Pacific Steel and Recycling, 1805 U.S. Highway 2, she said.

At the drive, people can bringall kinds of recyclable materials, she said.

Cripps said this will enable families to do all of their spring cleaning and unload trash while bringing recyclables to Pacific.