Town & Country Volunteer Clean Up

Each year, the Hinckley & Finlayson offices volunteer together to clean up the road alongside their respective sections of the Adopt A Highway Program. The Finlayson office sponsors a section of Finlayson Road, just south of Highway 18, and the Hinckley office sponsors a section on Highway 61, just north of Hinckley. This spring, Hinckley’s crew cleaned up over 20 bags of garbage!

Lots of Laughs

It’s always nice to get out in the fresh air during the Spring, before the ticks & mosquitos come out in full force! But boy, do we find a lot of interesting things! We find the usual – beer & soda cans, candy wrappers, fast-food trash, receipts, yard signs, and

tire rims/hub caps. But we also find some unusual items, which makes you think about how it got there! Things like car batteries, ski masks (robbers?), broken power tools, feminine products, diapers (baby & adult) and drug paraphernalia.  This year, face masks seemed to be a theme as well. #thankyoucovid

The Hinckley fast-food of choice for litterbugs was White Castle, while those litterbugs in Finlayson preferred the microwavable chuckwagon sandwiches. Busch Light, Snickers, Mt. Dew and energy drinks were also a huge hit in the ditches.

 

On a Serious Note

Our teams always enjoy the laughs, but we are also reminded about the huge need for trash pickup in our rural areas. Many times, we’ll find couches, stoves, toilets & even hot tubs which have been left on the side of a “back road” – because someone thinks it won’t be noticed. But it is. This is our community, where we live, drive to school, drive to work, and take walks. We need to do all we can to take care of it.

If you are interested in helping to keep our communities clean, visit the Adopt-A-Highway program on the MnDOT page. MnDOT’s AAH coordinators will provide volunteers with safety information, AAH safety vests and trash bags. They then remove the bags and all large, heavy or hazardous items once your pick-up is done. You also get a sign with your name on it along your section of roadway or rest area.