Community cleanup

Enel Green Power Geothermal Plant employees and Churchill County Planner Michael Johnson recently cleaned up an area off Tarzyn Road that had become littered with garbage.

Johnson said he has received complaints from residents about the amount of trash being dumped in that area.

“Enel geothermal has volunteered its employees to clean up the dumping site off of Tarzyn Road,” Johnson said. “Enel’s Plant Manager Brian Stankiewicz said they would provide the equipment along with lunch for their crews to get the job done.”

Johnson said he took Bob Edwards from the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to the property off Tarzyn Road.

“Bob said once the clean up is done he plans on putting K-Rail up and not necessarily block it off,” Johnson said, “but block it off so vehicles can’t drive back there to dump trash. We want to keep it clean so people can go walk their dogs, go jogging, or go four-wheeling and make it accessible to them but not to vehicles.”

Johnson said Enel pushed for a corporate-wide effort to dedicated their employees to two personal days a year to provide community service to the communities their plants are located in; cleanups in parks, highways, buildings, etc. or for their employees to help out in community events. He said that Enel provided a front loader, two dumpsters, pitchforks, rakes and shovels to get the job off of Tarzyn Road completed.

Johnson said the Enel group who helped clan up Tarzyn Road did a great job and had positive attitudes about it the entire time.

“The group did an excellent job,” Johnson said. “We started working around 7:30 a.m. and finished around 11 and then took lunch at Oats Park at 11:30. I told Brian, that he had a great group of guys that he worked with because not once did I hear them complain about cleaning up other people’s garbage.”

Ryan Swirczek, city public works director, said residents are able to drop their heavier trash items off at the transfer site east of Fallon for a low cost.

“For residents to recycle items there is no charge,” Swirczek said. “The minimum fee to drop off bulky items starts at $5 and increases by weight, but for $35 you can drop one ton off so the prices are extremely reasonable.”

Johnson said the cleanup project went off without a hitch and that the Enel employees would like to do another cleanup effort next year.