EUSTIS, Florida—A little bit of everything, including the kitchen sink.
More than two dozen people came out in the cloudy and humid weather to clean up just a small part of the community and their efforts took at least 2,370 pounds of trash off just one street in Eustis Tuesday afternoon during “CleanUp with a Cop.”
Beginning with a group photo in front of Palmetto Point Park with a display from “Card My Yard, Leesburg, FL” volunteers armed with grabbers and buckets made their way down Palmetto Street grabbing every piece of trash they saw, while Eustis Public Works was on hand to pick up and dispose of all the trash.
Eustis Police Chief Craig Capri teamed up with CleanUp Eustis’ Christine Cruz, for the second such event in less than a year and proved just a few people can make a substantial difference in a small amount of time.
“We’re making Eustis great,” Capri said.
Eustis resident and candidate for city commission Gary Ashcraft, brought the area to Cruz’ attention after picking his daughter up at a nearby campus.
“I couldn’t believe how bad that area is. The roads lead to Palmetto (Point) Park and it was sad to see the trash,” Ashcraft told Inside Lake. “The residents near the area tell the city they don’t seem to get enough attention to the roads in the area, so I decided to lead a team with CleanUp Eustis to show good faith and how everyone from the community can come together to help all areas of the city.”
CleanUp Eustis has taken tens of thousands of pounds of trash out of Eustis’ lakes and off the streets and will see its fifth birthday this Labor Day. Cruz is appreciative of all the efforts from the community and is especially grateful for Eustis Public Works, “Honestly, without them, no cleanups would ever happen. They are amazing and remove all the trash we pick up.”
Two mattresses, a dozen tires, 31 contractor-size bags of trash that contained various food wrappers, soft drink containers, beer bottles and yes, even a kitchen sink were collected today by volunteers on Palmetto Street. About a dozen shells, believed to be gopher tortoise shells were also found. In Florida, gopher tortoises are a threatened species and both the tortoises, and their burrows are protected by law.
Some of Palmetto Street is in the city limits and another portion is in unincorporated Lake County, but that did not matter to Capri. He wants the whole area cleaned up and more inviting to residents and visitors, he told Inside Lake. The street dead-ends at Palmetto Point Park, a serene setting where three children were enjoying their Spring Break fishing while volunteers worked to clean up.
Eustis City Commissioner Willie Hawkins, along with Carla Mitchell, president of the Eustis African American Heritage Committee joined Capri and several of his officers and a civilian employee, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and inmates from the Lake County Jail in addition to numerous other volunteers.
“It’s a community team effort, with help from multiple groups,” Cruz told Inside Lake.
CleanUp Eustis has a monthly cleanup event the first Saturday of each month at Ferran Park; to keep up with its events, join its Facebook group, CleanUp Eustis.
