Volunteers turn out for waterway cleanup

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

Dozens of hard-working individuals teamed up Saturday to clean up Copperas Cove’s Parks for the Keep Texas Waterways Clean event hosted by Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful (KCCB). 

KCCB volunteers worked hard from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. Saturday morning to clean up both South Park and Heritage Park including removing some offensive graffiti from under the South Park bridge. Throughout the event, approximately 50 volunteers collected 180 pounds of trash.

“I love this park,” said Crystal Owens who helped clean up South Park and worked on the graffiti removal. “This park is special to me. I used to come here all the time with my kids...It’s sad to see all this really profane stuff down here.”

Owens and a few other volunteers covered the graffiti with multiple coats of paint.

Most of the other South Park volunteers followed either the walking trail or the waterway filling their bags with trash.

“We want to make sure that we keep our waterways clean,” said KCCB Director, Anna Rodriguez, about why they chose South Park and Heritage Park. “All the trash, even if it’s not in our waterways can be blown into the waterways which can affect our wildlife and the water that goes into our systems…We want to make sure that we’re protecting our wildlife and our waterways.”

“I’m just trying to help keep the park clean to keep America beautiful,” said Wanda Moore who helped with the cleanup efforts. “It’s a nice park…I walk here two or three times a day.”

KCCB’s next big clean-up event is the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off planned for April 26 where they plan to clean up the area around HEB.