Thanks to five volunteers from Farner and Turtletown, and a Polk County official, over 7,000 pounds of metal items and trash that had been piling up for years along Waller Road in Farner has been cleaned up.
“We are the talk of Farner. Everyone’s very pleased,” said Litter Grant Director for Polk County William Wallace who has received several phone calls and messages from locals in Farner and Turtletown about the clean up.
After five hours of picking up the metal items and trash, Wallace estimated that between the trash picked up on Runion Road and the metal items and trash picked up on Waller Road to weigh 7,670 pounds, and of that, 80% were recyclable materials.
Organizer of the clean up, Ronney Freeman, of Turtletown, with the help of Jimmy Womble, who used his own dumping truck and operated the heavy equipment in order to pick up the large metal items, Mike and Karen Herring, of Turtletown, and volunteers with the Buck Bald Beautification Brigade who pick up trash along Highway 68 in Copperhill, and Brylan Zeke Brendle, who completed his required 200 hours of community service since pleading guilty in Federal court Tuesday, August 17, for dumping trash near the Shuler Creek area in Polk County, were the individuals responsible for removing and properly disposing of the metal items and trash along the roadways.
The group of volunteers also picked up several more bags of trash and a couch along Runion Road in Turtletown.
Freeman, who adopted Runion Road and a six mile stretch of Highway 68 between Turtletown and Farner in the name of Apalachia Dam Watchers through the Adopt-A-Highway program, began his efforts of cleaning up trash along the road and highway in July this year.
If you witness any illegal littering or dumping in Polk County, call Polk County Executive Robby Hatcher’s office at 423-338-4527 to report it. Nobody trashes Tennessee!