Old Man By The Sea Needs Help

Saipan’s Clean-up Brigade met early last Saturday morning at the Old Man By the Sea and realized it would require no ordinary effort.

After getting drenched by heavy rains on the hike down to the beach, the group, sponsored by the Division of Environmental Quality, was met by approximately 25 trash bags stuffed to capacity.

It seems that staff members from the Hyatt Regency Hotel had been down to the site a few weeks prior. After stuffing their bags full at that time, the group realized they would be unable to haul heavy bags to the road, so they stacked them neatly in an out of the way location. The Clean-up Brigade then stepped in last weekend to help finish the job. Members spent Saturday morning re-packing the collected garbage into lighter and more manageable sacks. Then they toted about 30 of the bags back up the trail to a dump truck provided by the Saipan Mayor’s Office.

Now that most of the collected garbage has been taken care of, and because the group didn’t have time to pick up additional litter on the beach, the Brigade decided to make Old Man By the Sea the site for next month’s meeting.

“There is still a lot of garbage at this location,” said Ray Masga, one of the organizers. “We need to continue working at this spot.”

So attention all Brigade members, volunteers, and people who care about the island. Mark your calendars – Saturday, August 7, 8:00 AM. The Brigade will meet at Esco’s Bakery on Capitol Hill and proceed to Old Man By the Sea to continue picking up trash at this magnificent location.

Masga also gives kudos to the Hyatt for being proactive and organizing themselves into an effective, even only temporary, environmental team. “We’re always very excited when we hear about informal clean-up efforts like the one the Hyatt did.”

If you’d like to learn more about the Clean-up Brigade, call DEQ at 664-8500.