From Monday to Thursday in downtown Williams Lake, a Clean Team has begun their work helping keep the city looking good.
The brainchild of Sherry Yonkman, executive director of Downtown Williams Lake, the small group walking the streets to pick up all manner of garbage and waste —including human feces— is making a big difference.
Yonkman said the group regularly gets feedback from citizens and ranges from thumbs up out vehicle windows to businesses inviting them in for coffee. At this point, the feedback the Clean Team has received has been very positive.
"It was just really nice to have people come up and thank you for what you're doing," said Yonkman, who has been going out with the team herself until she hires for the position of Clean Team supervisor.
While there was a Clean Team last year, it was a 10-week pilot project to test out the idea. This year, thanks to $40,000 in funding over two years from the province through the Prince George and Region Prosperity Fund, and an additional $5,000 grant from the city of Williams Lake, the Clean Team now has two years of funding for eight months of those two years.
So from March through to November, the team will be spending three hours a day Monday to Thursday once again cleaning up downtown in an effort to help remove the burden from local businesses.
Yonkman has looked at what other communities have done, and said she uses a furniture dolly outfitted with a large garbage can, sharps container and other essentials as the workers go through downtown. The workers also carry individual five-gallon pails, which they can then empty into the larger garbage can as needed.
"It was a learning curve, we really had to figure things out," said Yonkman of refining their system. The team also now carries the supplies needed to removed graffiti.
Two of the three staff this year are returnees from last year's crew.
"They're great," she said of the team members, noting how hard they work, despite some of the challenges of dealing with some pretty nasty waste.
In last year's 10-week pilot, Yonkman said they picked up 100 piles of feces, noting how challenging it is for people when there are not year-round public washrooms.
"There is no dignity," she said, for those who are faced with few options to address basic biological functions.
But what is the most common piece of trash, despite not being something many in the population do anymore?
"We spend more time picking up cigarette butts than any other category of garbage," said Yonkman of the small but significant trash.
Harry Sutcliffe, one of the team members, said he has been trying to count the cigarette butts he picks up in a shift and so far his record is 485.
While many people wouldn't want to deal with the waste our society produces on the daily, Yonkman said the work they do is not only appreciated, but it makes a clear difference.
"I feel like we're this little team of ants and we just leave cleanliness behind us," she said, noting how satisfying it is to look back on clean parking lots and sidewalks.
