More than 40 volunteers answered Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s call to help clean the banks of the Naugatuck River Saturday.
Saturday’s clean up was a collaborative effort between United Illuminating, the Housatonic Valley Association, city blight officers, the public works department and other departments within the city.
Working from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m, volunteers sifted through tires, car parts and miscellaneous trash that has accumulated for decades along the mile long dirt path.
Larry Mai, a senior account manager with United Illuminating, which owns the property along the river, thanked the city and the volunteers for the assistance.
“We made some calls and got some people together to see what could be done,” he said.
Ron Sill, a volunteer and former city aldermen, called the current condition of the area an “eyesore.”
“Right now this is a terrible mess, but we are going to make it beautiful again,” he said
With help with dump trucks and backhoes from the public works department, more than 200 tires were removed from the area.
One volunteer, Pat Blakeman a lifelong Derby resident, said the area was once an accepted dumping ground for residents.
At one point, the city instructed residents to stack tires along the river bank as a way to protect their homes from flooding, Blakeman said.
“Back then that is how it was done,” she said.
Joe Moore, a blight officer with the city, said the annual event occurs during the spring, before the foliage arrives so the trash can be identified and removed.
“We love our city and want to see it the way it looked when we were kids,” he said.
Staffieri said the city hopes to make to construct a dirt walking trail along the river for residents.
“Today has been a complete success and we have accomplished more than what we wanted,” he said.
Special thanks to MarkAnthony Izzo for sharing his photos.