Benton County cleanup survives storms

BENTONVILLE -- A cold rain, ranging from a drizzle to a downpour, slowed but did not halt Saturday's annual Benton County Cleanup.

"If I'd known I was going duck hunting I'd have worn my waders," Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, said while directing traffic just inside the main gate at the Road Department site at 1206 SW 14th St. in Bentonville.

Jones was one of several elected officials who helped with the event, along with county employees and other community volunteers.

Teresa Sidwell, the county's environmental coordinator, said the weather threatened the event off and on throughout the morning, but the intermittent rain never halted the activity. Last year's fall cleanup event was halted after about two hours because of heavy rain across the county.

"The weather was pretty good for about the first half hour," Sidwell said of the cleanup, which was scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to noon. "Then we got a downpour. That stopped for awhile and then it would rain again. So far we haven't seen any lightning or heard any thunder. I'm having my volunteers work for awhile and then come in and get dry."

Sidwell said several vehicles were waiting at the Road Department gates when she arrived to begin her day at 6 a.m. By about 7:45 a.m., she said, traffic was lined up and waiting on SW 14th Street. John Sudduth, the county's general services administrator, told Sidwell to open the gates a little ahead of schedule to ease the traffic congestion.

"John called about 10 minutes till 8 and said 'Can we let these people in?'" Sidwell said. "Once they got off the highway and were lined up at the gate we had about eight lanes of traffic waiting to get in. That's probably about 80 cars."

Sidwell said that by about 9:45 a.m. the traffic count had topped 600 vehicles and the lines of people waiting were still slowing traffic on 14th Street.

Eddie Mahar, the county's information technology director, was one of the volunteers working the event. He said people were patient and appreciative.

"I've had several people thank me for working in this,' he said. "I told them it's just a little liquid sunshine."

Jones said the volume of traffic equalled the busiest days he's seen at the cleanup events, despite the weather.

"It's as busy as it's ever been, as busy as I've seen it during good weather," he said. "During some of the heavy rains it slowed down some. I think that was because of the tires and the household waste. It takes time to get that out of the vehicles."

Daryl Kendrick of Springdale brought a small load of items to dispose of. He said he didn't consider staying home because of the rain.

"I really do need to get rid of this stuff," he said.

NW News on 04/19/2015

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