C.O. streets see trash uncovered by melting snow

As that once-thick layer of snow and ice keeps melting around the High Desert, some trash that’s been frozen over and buried for weeks is being slowly uncovered.

This is the first time in 2017 that the city of Bend can come around and clean it up. It’s a matter of getting what they can with what the weather permits.

“Sweepers are out, and have been out,” Bend Director of Streets David Abbas said Monday. “It’s kind of a ‘pick your streets, work with the weather’ (situation). And they’re not getting it all on one pass — some of it is frozen to the road.”

The city works to clean up the streets, which are within its jurisdiction. But when the trash is on a sidewalk outside of a house, apartment complex or business, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to pick it up.

The city hopes it will be a team cleanup effort.

“We just ask the community to help if they see something outside of their business or their sidewalk or their home,” Abbas said. “To help clean that up for the community.”

The more snow and ice that melts away, the more city workers can do.

“We’ll get the guys out there, the crews out there with the backpack blowers to blow off the sidewalks,” Abbas said. “Try to get those cleaned up for the community — blow it out in the street and get it swept up.”

So far, the city hasn’t gotten any complaints about trash popping up as the snow and ice melts.