Merrimack River Gets a Cleaning [VIDEO]

Nearly 50 volunteers spent a few hours on July 14, cleaning up the area along the Merrimack River behind the 6 Loudon Road office building in preparation for a new Merrimack River Greenway Trail project.

The area, which is frequently by a number of homeless campers during the last few years, was filled with all kinds of garbage and refuse, from broken glass, burned wood, food debris, beer cans and other alcohol containers, and even the back seat cushion to a Volkswagen bus which was lodged into the sand along the banks of the river. There were warnings by the police and fire officials that weapons and used hypodermic needles might be found, but no injuries to the volunteers were reported.

Volunteers picked up small pieces of trash, loading up garbage bag after garbage bag full of items, which city employees hauled away the bags, along with larger items, with two tractors.

Former Ward 4 City Councilor Dick Lemieux, one of the organizers of the effort, said the trail idea in the area had been discussed for more than three decades. Recently, during a survey of potential bike trails, the idea resurfaced. A bunch of volunteers created an effort to start to clean up the area, starting a Facebook page of about 250 residents interested in cleaning up the area and clearing it for a trail.

“We have some of the most scenic river frontage in New Hampshire,” he said, and most of the residents of Concord and surrounding towns don’t get to enjoy it. Very few people realize what we have out here.”

According to Lemieux, the 46 volunteers participated, donating 88 hours of time to clean up three quarters of a mile of the Merrimack River Greenway Trail. A 30-cubic yard dumpster was filled with dump.

As the volunteers were wrapping up things to go, a homeless man, clearly distraught about losing his tent and some of his belongings that were left along the river, requested that his items be taken off one of the tractors. His tent and some of his other belongings were returned to him. But police officers spoke to the man and warned him that he was not allowed to be campaign in the area.

The future

Now that everything is cleaned up along the river, the group will begin building a hiking trail through the area. The trail will go from the parking lot behind 6 Loudon Road to the edge of the area just beyond the cornfield.

The group hopes to eventually build a permanent multiuse trail suitable for bikes, rollerblading, wheelchairs and strollers, along with walkers, according to Lemieux.

The area, which is known as a place where the homeless camp out, will soon be posted with new signs warning that certain activities are prohibited in the area.

The project could cost in the neighborhood of $12 million.

Give 5 Day

On a personal note, July 14, was a Give 5 Day for all Patch.com employees. Five times a year, employees are given paid time to spend as much time of the day as possible out in the field, volunteering in the community. Each individual Patch.com editor chooses the organization or event to donate time to. The volunteer time is not mandated but it is strongly encouraged.

For this particular day, I covered news for most of the day, but set aside time to help with others clean up the Merrimack. While I had set aside four hours, volunteers were able to get all the work done in about 2.5 hours. We then feasted on pizza donated to the cause by Constantly Pizza on South Main Street. A good time was had by all and shore side and trails along Merrimack River have never looked better!

For more information on the effort to build a Merrimack Greenway Trail along the river, email MRGT-info@CNHBC.org.