Trash dumps are very large and open areas used to dump the area’s waste. Who knew that the Parkway Central grounds fit that description.
“It has changed dramatically in the 25 years since I have been here,” science teacher Kenneth Greathouse said.
Greathouse showed the area behind the school about 50 yards from the Adam Bergeron’s room at the back of the school.
“A lot of this stuff is coming from, I know, other schools, some of it is playground rubble, this is the decent stuff. There is asphalt and tires back there. There’s metal posts and trash cans, that they have hauled and dumped from other schools. And it gets buried,” Greathouse said.
The area where trash is being dumped is right near where the cross country course is on the grounds. Cross country runners say they have seen some weird things back there.
“Typically you can find cans, bottles or plastic bags. This year we found a pair of kids sunglasses and there was a playground slide back there for a while,” senior cross country runner Kayla Friesen said.
The course is used for MSHSAA Cross Country District Competition in the fall and the course is an asset to Parkway Central as a sports entity.
“It takes a lot to get a course approved to be used for big MSHSAA meets. Having constant trash on the course will make it harder to get ready and could become a hazard for runners if no one notices it,” Friesen said
Parkway Facilities said that they have tried to clean up the area and it has come to their attention as of now.
“The area in question, because of its isolation, has been prone to collect trash over the years,” Parkway Director of Facilities Mike Mertens said.
Even as they say that, their is still trash roaming the course and the grounds behind the school building.
“We routinely police the area and I’ve asked my Grounds Supervisor to have the grounds team clean the area up, once again,” Mertens said. “We also routinely regrade the area in question and have added fill and mulch in support of cross country events.”
As trash is picked up, Greathouse says that the area still needs to be cleaned as well, as he has found some obscene objects in the forest which is on the grounds.
“We’re talking human feces, lots of liquor bottles, and beer cans,” Greathouse said.
Also, the land is a monetary asset for the district. The land has a lot of acreage and could be sold if the district ever needed some extra funds.
“The acres back there, you could sell that. What would be the district’s take about that,” Greathouse said.
In the end the course is an asset to the area around us, as well as the district.
“I think the district needs to realize that this course is not only an asset to the Central community and their athletes, but teams from across the state,” Friesen said. “[The teams] compete and practice on it, and many people in the neighborhoods around us use it to train also.”
