Havre Pride Cleanup returns next week

Havre Pride Community Cleanup is set for Monday through Saturday, May 16-21, and after a hiatus due to the pandemic, organizers would like to see lots of help from the public to clean up the community — taking advantage of the garbage bags and trash bins available for the week and the Saturday push that will include a free lunch for participants.

“We’re hoping for a major, major cleanup,” said Pride Chair Kim Cripps, who is organizing the event along with the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce and Hill County Community Foundation.

The public can pick up garbage bags at the Chamber, 130 Fifth Ave., and Havre Hi-Line Realty, 306-Third Ave., and the garbage bins will be at Highland Park ZipTrip and the parking lot at First Street and Fifth Avenue.

So people will be able to work at cleanup all week, Cripps said, even in their own yards and along their fences and alleyways, as well as around their businesses.

“They can do this all week long at their leisure, but the main push is going to be Saturday from 8 to noon, and then we’re going to wrap up at Town Square with a lunch for the cleanup crews and some drawings,” Cripps said, adding that garbage bags will be available at the Square that day.

Hill County Community Foundation member Pam Veis said that maps will be available to help everyone track areas that are being cleaned and those that still need attention.

The foundation, she added, decided that the cleanup event is a good fit because the foundation has an annual grant cycle that focuses on community beautification, basic human needs, and arts and culture. The organization is helping sponsor the new mural going on the back of the Elks Club building and the cleanup.

Veis said foundation members plan to make participation in the spring cleanup an annual thing and will work on planning a bigger noon celebration for next year, maybe bring in a band.

Cleanup organizers are hoping to recruit Havre schools and groups like the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line to get their youth outside to help clean up their campuses. Montana State University-Northern has already cleaned the Northern campus she said.

Cripps said it’s a good time for people to teach their kids that trash belongs in a bin not on the ground.

They are also working to notify groups like 4-H, Scouts and Girl Scouts whose members have come out to help in the past.

“We’re just trying to hit up everybody,” Cripps said.

“We need people everywhere,” she added. “We need people up at the (Holiday Village) Mall around that fence. We need people … up 16th Avenue. We need people on ‘Curve’ Road by the racquetball club, (the hills around the hospital). You name it.”

She said the streets and roads out to the landfill are particularly in need of cleaning because people are losing garbage from their vehicles and trailers as they haul to the dump. And the hill on the west end of First Street is a place that catches a lot of blowing garbage as well, she added.

Cripps also wants people to be safe: wear gloves, sturdy shoes and visible clothing.

If they find anything such as drug paraphernalia, dead animals, or even something like the gun found in the grass one year, they need to call authorities, she said.

“We really want people to be careful because there are nasty things among the weeds,” she said.

The free lunch for volunteers Saturday at noon will include hotdogs, drinks and a chance to win some Chamber bucks to spend around town.

If anyone has questions they can call Cripps at 406-265-0905.