Spring is upon us and yesterday we celebrated Earth Day by digging up more yard to become new garden space. What we didn't do was attempt to do a spring cleanup in our ravine.
I hate to admit this but we are done. We've given up on the city taking any action. We've called and talked with City officials for years and nobody has helped us. Picking up some trash that blows in every year is one thing but there is no help for the relentless dumping that takes place by our neighbors. Why should we continuously pick up after these people when there is no incentive to make them stop?
I guess Moline's beautification policy is only for certain areas. To be honest I'm disgusted with the City of Moline and when we move it won't be within Moline's boundaries. Moline, IL has so much potential to be a beautiful town but they put their attention elsewhere. Drive around, it isn't just the ravines, there is trash everywhere around Moline.
The drought from the last two years also played havoc with our side of the ravine. Most of the plants dried up, exposing soil that washed away when we did get a rainfall. Now chunks of concrete that the previous owners illegally dumped are exposed, not to mention there has been settling. Between that and a few fallen trees, I don't think it's safe to take on a cleanup effort. I feel like I've let the wildlife down.
Here is an example of why its so discouraging:
A neighbor across from us decided to clean out their garage and preceded to throw things down the ravine. When they saw us watching them they created a junk pile at the top of the ravine, behind but still on their property.
Last year we had high hopes the Moline Neighborhood Improvement Officer would actually help us by writing letters. There was talk that the dumping neighbors would be forced to clean up what they dumped or they would be billed by the city once the city cleaned it up. After many weeks of nothing happening we cleaned up what had fallen on our side of the ravine. The other portion was never cleaned up. In fact more has been added. The neighbors trail of trash..
It's exhausting. In some twisted way we found that we were more of the problem. Our neighbors are angry because we should "mind our own business." Ravines are after all here to become land fills. The city got tired of our calls and to call the police during a dumping just annoyed the police. It's not their job to stop people from illegally dumping. Apparently nobody holds that job in Moline, IL.
