Cleanup is fairly light after Independence Day activities in Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS — It’s July 5, and the mess in Idaho Falls isn’t that bad.
With the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, Riverfest and the Idaho Falls Independence Day Parade drawing enormous crowds, there is bound to be cleanup afterword. But those in charge say the litter isn’t terrible.
“Any time you put that many people in one spot for a day, you’re always going to have a cleanup,” Ball Ventures/Snake River Landing Chief Development Officer Eric Isom said.
Although Snake River Landing, Melaleuca and the Idaho Falls Police Department are still working on getting an estimate on how many people attended the Freedom Celebration, Eric Isom said they parked more cars this year than in the previous two.
Last year it was estimated more than 200,000 people watched the firework show in the Idaho Falls area.
“(Snake River Landing) was pretty packed (this year). There was a lot of people,” he said. “I always think when you put that many people in one spot, it could be a lot worse.”
Still, Isom said the cleanup will still take most of the day.
“We have our operations crew (for Snake River Landing). … There’s usually 12 or 13 of those people. There are a lot of other company volunteers who come out. The county sheriff’s inmate labor detail helps out with some of the cleanup. We’ll often times have some volunteer groups. Maybe some Boy Scouts. The city of Idaho Falls, the Sanitation Department and the Parks and Recreation Department help with that,” he said.
Eric Soto is with the Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation cleanup crew. He said most of what he was picking up was leftover food that wasn’t thrown away.
“We started at 10 a.m., and supposedly other people came at 6 a.m., and (there’s still) trash. A lot of food,” Soto said.
As for human waste, A-1 Rental Inc. had 160 port-a-potties with six handicap port-a-potties and 30 hand-wash stations at Snake River Landing. All of that waste was pumped out and sent to the Idaho Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant on Friday morning. All but a few of the port-a-potties have been picked up and hauled away.
The parade route in Idaho Falls also drew lots of people, but Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce CEO Chip Schwarze said cleanup is minimal there as well.
“We do our best to pick up after ourselves. Really, there’s not a lot of cleanup that happens,” Schwarze said.
He discouraging people in the parade from handing out flyers and things that would just be thrown on the ground has helped to prevent litter.
“We live in a beautiful place, and people are pretty good about taking care of themselves. It’s not a huge problem for us,” Schwarze said.
Anyone that lost items at Snake River Landing during Riverfest or the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration can claim them by calling (208) 557-5300.