Tidy Up Tenkiller and Illinois River’s fall cleanup event collected a total of 9.51 tons of trash, according to figures released by the Oklahoma Ozarks Tourism Association (OOTA), formerly known as the Greater Tenkiller Area Association (GTAA).
Gena McPhail, executive director for OOTA, said during the October 5 cleanup 75 volunteers loaded 10 roll-off dumpsters with the massive amount of trash collected from the lake’s shoreline and waters.
“That’s a total of 19,020 lbs.,” McPhail said.
The event, which is sponsored each year in the spring and fall by OOTA, aids in cleaning up lake neighborhoods, such as Cookson Bend Road, Carlisle Cove, Snake Creek Cove, and Joliff Inlet.
“We had 45 volunteers for those neighborhoods,” McPhail said.
Those neighborhoods col- lected the following amounts:
• Cookson Bend Road, Susan Cresswell: 1.69 tons/3,380 lbs.
• Carlisle Cove, Wendy Nelson: 1.05 tons/2,100 lbs.
• Snake Creek Cove, Mike Mullen: 1.83 tons/3,660 lbs.
• Joliff Inlet, Gary Walsh: 1.10 tons/2,200 lbs.
Twenty volunteers manned the lake shoreline, collecting a total of 1.66 tons/3,320 lbs. of trash from Burnt Cabin Ridge and the northern section of the lake.
In addition, five volunteers were sent to collect tires at each location, which totaled 189 tires at 2.68 tons/4,360 lbs.
On the Illinois River side, 10 volunteers, including Desiree Brockman, picked up a total of 20 mesh bags of trash from Peyton’s Place to the U.S. Hwy. 51/62 bridge.
McPhail said they wish to thank all the many volunteers that picked up trash, with special thanks going to Clif Hall/Cherokee County Trash Coalition, for sponsoring the roll-off dumpsters, and Hestin Lamons for delivering and picking up the dumpsters.
From August 2019 to October 2024, there have been 11 events total, with a whopping 967 people volunteering their time to pick up 124.27 tons/248,542 lbs. of trash.
OOTA has the spring cleanup scheduled for Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more info, call 620-789-2401.
