Another cleanup,
another success
for Potbelly's
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ROCKAWAY - Rob Grow knows exactly what he needs for the next Potbelly's Rockaway River Cleanup ... more Joyce Kanigels.
Joyce Kanigel sits on the Rockaway Borough Council and participated in Potbelly's 2nd annual Fall Rockaway River cleanup on Sunday, Oct. 10, working the banks of the Rockaway River from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m
That was AFTER she had participated in the Denville portion of the five-town cleanup the day before!
"She was out there in the middle of everything both days," said Grow, one of the owners of Potbelly's Riverside Cafe that overlooks the river at the Main Street bridge and the organizer of the river cleanup. "I was beat after one day's work ... she was tireless!"
Grow enlisted the help of the mayors from Rockaway, Denville, Wharton, Dover and Boonton for this fall's cleanup and crews from all five towns were out in force cleaning debris from the water and the banks of the portion of the river that ran through their towns.
Rockaway Mayor Russ Greuter was in the middle of the muck and the mire in the borough, hauling out tires and other debris.
Mayor Bill Chegwidden of Wharton had a group of "... about 25 students from Morris Hills and Morris Knolls" helping him fill up a couple of pickup trucks with junk pulled from in and around the river in his town.
Mayor Cy Wekilsky of Boonton said that Natalie Pisarcik had everything well in hand as she led a group of volunteers that cleaned out a portion of the river that used to be part of the Morris Canal.
Mayor James Dodd of Dover reported that Connie Sibone Foster, who has orgnaized several other river cleanups in town, had "... five or six adults plus 15 boys scouts fill a dump truck full of litter from a four-block stretch of the river ."
Kanigel told Grow that Mayor Ted Hussa, who has been involved with several other river cleanup projects in Denville, had his usual good crop of volunteers working the river on Saturday.
Once again, tires led the long list of debris pulled from the river and its banks. Automobile tires, a couple of huge truck tires, bicycle tires, tires from smaller vehicles, tires from toys, etc.
"We pulled out 102 tires from the Beach Street area of the river and along the shores," Grow said, explaining that was the area his crews concentrated on the most. "We got 67 tires from one 30-foot stretch alone."
Other items of note that had been dumped or swept into the river included: two bowling balls, several lengths of chain-link fencing, toys, two wallets, lawn furniture of the plastic and metal variety and a shopping cart.
Also, parts of bicycles and tricycles, a water heater, a shopping cart, two mattresses, and the usual assortment of cans, bottles, coffee-to-go containers and plastic bags and containers of all shapes and sizes.
"The wallets contained IDs - no money, just IDs," Grow said. "We gave them to the police and they will be returned to their owners."
Grow will continue to hold his multi-town river cleanups in the spring and fall and is already thinking ahead to next spring where he "... may pick a specific area of the river and target that for a massive cleanup.
"The turnout is always good and it's nice to see the enthusiasm of the volunteers," Grow said. "We have been getting some nice help from the local media, too -- the Star-Ledger, Daily Record, Citizen and Neighbor News have helped us get the word out about our cleanups."
There is another "word" that Grow would like to get out, too ... like, don't throw stuff in the river in the first place.
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(To contact Rob Grow to volunteer or to obtain information for the 2011 spring cleanup, please call him at Potbelly's at 973-627-7877 or on his cell at 201-602-6835)
