The Friends of Poquessing Watershed spanned two counties in their latest volunteer cleanup of the Poquessing Creek floodplain near Philadelphia Mills mall on July 11.
Five community volunteers were assisted by a Philadelphia Water Department crew. Together, they removed 9,200 pounds of litter, including 55 discarded tires, from wooded areas on both sides of Knights Road in Philadelphia and Bucks County. The volunteers were Rich Glaser, Marge Philippi, Hans Brolinson, state Rep. Martina White and White’s aide, Brian Caputo. Water Department employees who provided invaluable help with a mini track loader included Malik Pettus, Eric Taylor, Charles Shaw, Barry Polisky, Darnell Jordan and Jose Rodriguez, along with supervisor Pat Ford. The nearby Bethel Franklin Mills Church allowed the workers to use its parking lot as a base of operations.
In addition to the boatload of tires, volunteers removed a variety of items from the park land including a Sam’s Club shopping cart, a dodgeball, the wheel and axle from a toy, part of a fiberglass boat, a hockey ball, a broken umbrella, carpet under-padding and two hubcaps.
Nance Kerns of the Friends of Pennypack Park organized the cleanup for the Poquessing group. For information about future Poquessing cleanups, call the park phone at 215–638–0832 or email to [email protected]. ••
