FoRF was founded by Mayoral candidate Gene Counts.
Funding for Chris Eberly's VISTA position, office, and lab equipment is provided by grant money obtained by Gene Counts.
According to previous issues of the Dickenson Star, over the past four years these cleanup efforts have removed more than 100 tons of trash from local streams.
Russell Fork group cleans up riverbank
CHRIS EBERLY / FRIENDS OF THE RUSSELL FORK
April 30, 2008
Editor’s note: Chris Eberly is an Americorps VISTA volunteer assigned to work with Friends of the Russell Fork. The group is made up of volunteers with a mission to clean the Russell Fork River in Dickenson and Buchanan Counties through community involvement, grant-writing and educational outreach. Eberly works under the direction of the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team in partnership with the Office of Surface Mining.
The Friends of the Russell Fork celebrated the grand opening of its Haysi office last Wednesday, April 23, with a morning cleanup of the town riverbanks followed by a cookout.
Twenty-five community volunteers and 30 students from Haysi High School contributed two hours of their time to beautify the town and make the event a success.
Every business owner in Haysi was asked in advance to take responsibility for cleaning the banks of the Russell Fork River behind his or her premises. Students from the high school were assigned to clean the areas where no businesses are located.
Darrol Poston’s shop class and the Haysi High School Beta Club cleaned the banks opposite the town and the stretch of the Russell Fork from the high school to the fire department.
Lester Turner of Dickenson County Litter Control provided safety tips, bags and gloves to the volunteers. His crew also removed the garbage after it was bagged and brought up to the street level.
Friends of the Russell Fork member Gene Counts paddled garbage bags and tires across the river in his kayak.
After two hours of work picking up litter and debris, the volunteers climbed back up to the Haysi picnic shelter to enjoy a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers. Jane Moore of Mountain Art Works provided potato salad and baked beans. Glenn Graham manned the grill and received a number of compliments on his work.
Mayor Norman Mullins contributed $200 to the Friends of the Russell Fork to offset the cost of the food.
The clean-up event was scheduled for the day after the Friends of the Russell Fork (FORF) held the first meeting in its new office at Haysi High School.
Thanks to the approval of the Dickenson County School Board, the FORF is basing its watershed activities from the former Home Economics cottage below the high school.
The cottage’s location on the Russell Fork River is convenient for many of the water monitoring volunteers at the high school and for students who will have greater opportunity to get involved in environmental awareness programs.
Before the FORF moved into the office, community volunteers helped refurbish the interior and exterior of the building. Walls, windows and doors were repainted, some plumbing repairs were done and a new toilet installed, the old desks inside the building were removed and new office equipment was assembled and arranged.
Mr. Poston was instrumental in the renovation, providing expert advice and the use of his shop on numerous occasions.
The FORF plans to open a laboratory in the office to test water samples and report the results to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
FORF expresses gratitude to the Dickenson County School Board for allowing the group to use the cottage.
http://www.thecoalfieldprogress.com/news.php?viewStory=15575