Adam Johnson Northern
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Two long-time Yellowknifers have had it with filthy streets, and are doing something about it.

Darrel Marshall said the mess left after Canada Day on Franklin Avenue was so offensive that he and his friend Warren Whitford took the matter into their own hands.

Warren Whitford, left, and Darrel Marshall hold up the bags of garbage they collected along Franklin Avenue after Canada Day. Both are disappointed with the amount of trash turning up on Yellowknife streets. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

They loaded some shovels and garbage bags into a black Dodge truck and cleaned up the area between 48th and 49th Street.

"Something had to be done," Marshall said. "It was terrible."

What offends Marshall more than the mess is the timing - he says the trash stayed put before, during and after the city's Canada Day parade, which drew large crowds all along Franklin Avenue.

"I was shocked that the garbage stayed the next day," he said. "It's astonishing that we had Canada Day come and go with nothing done about that garbage. People were literally sitting in it."

"It's appalling and it's pathetic."

While garbage on Yellowknife streets is a recurring problem, Marshall - who has lived in the city since 1973 - said this time was different.

"Honestly, I could say that this is the worst I've seen the downtown get with nothing being done about it," he said.

"It looks bad for us," Whitford said of the tourists in town over the summer. "This is what they see."

Marshall was considering taking the bag to council this week to prove his point. His plans haven't changed now that he knows council doesn't meet again until July 16.

"More the better, I think," he said of the state the garbage would be in by then.

Garbage cleanup in Yellowknife is handled by the city's public works department. Generally, cleanup is handled from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week according to community affairs program manager Brian Kelln.

"We have one staff member assigned to downtown," he said.

As for citizens taking garbage cleanup into their own hands?

"We're really excited about people taking it up on their own," Kelln said. "It shows pride."

He pointed out the city's Adopt a Street program, which supplies free garbage bags and free bag tags for the dump to helpful citizens.

Overall, the city of Yellowknife employs 185 people, at a cost of $15.9 million this year.Beyond city workers, Marshall wants to take his message to Yellowknife city councillors.

"If I were a city councillor, I think I myself would have gotten out there and cleaned it up on my own time," he said.

"(Councillors) just don't understand how trashy our city is."

Coun. Lydia Bardak said that's exactly what she was doing on Saturday.

"I spent 20 minutes in front of A&W picking up garbage," she said. "Why people think people should be cleaning up after them, I'm not sure."

While Bardak said she hadn't seen any of the summer students who often help with downtown cleanup, garbage problems start with the individual.

"If we had as many people picking up garbage as littering, imagine the difference it would make," she said.