FAIR WORKERS WAGE TRASH WAR; COORDINATION AND PLANNING KEY TO CLEANUP

When the gates open each day at the SEMO District Fair, it's no accident that the fairgrounds are clean, with no litter or trash in sight.

It's the result of a well-planned and executed clean-up operation that takes place every morning during fair week.

Each day of fair week, city solid waste department collection trucks will haul away between 10-15 tons of litter and trash and take it to the city landfill for burial. The tonnage increases toward the end of the week as fair traffic picks up.

The collection, most of it by hand, occurs before noon each day.

Keeping the fairgrounds free of trash and litter is a cooperative effort between the Cape Girardeau Solid Waste Department and the Southeast Missouri District Fair Board.

Planning and carrying out this massive cleanup operation each day is Steve Willis of the Cape Girardeau Solid Waste Department and Raymond Cox, who is in charge of grounds and operations at the fair. This is Willis' first year at the fair, while it's Cox's 30th year.

Willis says planning for the fair cleanup started in April when he rearranged schedules of the daily solid waste pickup routes so two trucks can make a daily stop at the fairgrounds.

Willis also met with fair officials to determine where the 22 solid waste containers will be spotted around the fairgrounds. That number doesn't include another 20-22 containers that will be located near the livestock tents for collection of used straw and manure.

Willis said most of the containers are located in high-traffic areas around the Arena Building, near the concession stands. At the same time, fair employees set out hundreds of 50-gallon trash barrels in locations where fairgoers will hopefully "pitch in" their trash and litter.

The daily cleanup operation begins around dawn.

The fair cleanup crew removes the filled plastic trash bags from the barrels and replaces them with new bag liners. Close behind, a forklift carrying a wooden bin serves as a collection point for the trash bags. Cox says it's easier using a forklift to collect the trash bags because it can maneuver up and down the narrow concession midway near the Arena Building without difficulty.

While the trash barrels are being emptied, workers with brooms sweep remaining litter and debris from alongside the concession stands.

In the grandstand-bleacher area, more fair employees are busy picking up paper cups and plates and other debris. Other workers pick up litter that has been tossed on the ground in other parts of the fairground.

All of the solid waste is taken to the larger trash dumpsters that have been spotted at the south end of the fairgrounds, near Cape LaCroix Creek. Solid waste department trucks will collect the trash and take it to the landfill for disposal.

Cox said the carnival is responsible for keeping its area of the fairgrounds cleaned each day.

During the day, fair employees go around replacing filled trash barrels with new trash bags. In the late afternoon, Willis makes a visual check of the dumpsters to see if a second, late afternoon pickup is required.

If everything goes according to schedule, the morning cleanup work is finished by the time the first fair visitor walks through the gate. But Cox says sometimes Mother Nature throws them a curve.

"Like Steve's people, we have to work, rain or shine, but rain sure does slow things down and makes it kinda bad for the workers," he said.

Cox and Willis said fairgoers can help keep the SEMO District Fairgrounds clean if they will remember to pitch their trash and litter into one of the trash barrels located on the fairgrounds.