Operation Clean Sweep Starts Next Week

To paraphrase Julius Caesar, " All of Cheatham County is divided into three parts." Three quite littered parts.

The high schools in the county serve to illustrate the divisions. The northern part is served by Sycamore High School, the central by Cheatham Central and the southern end by Harpeth High School. A distinct feature of our county is the two rivers, several large notable creeks and numerous small tributaries. Cheatham County is crossed by the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers. Two notable large creeks are Sam's Creek which used to a be a resort area and Sycamore Creek. Coming up from the Davidson County line on River Road we have Pond Creek, Sam's Creek and Brush Creek.

You would think that with all this water surrounding us, we would have a fairly wet farm. Not so. Mule Shoe Farm is located just off the flood plain in the limestone hills which are also a feature of the county. While we have numerous wet weather springs and seepage from the hills, we don't actually have much of a water supply. Many wells in the hills have dried up or were not much use in the first place having either very hard water or sulphur water.

This means that the main water supplies for the county come from the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers and Sycamore Creek. As I noted last week, there is lots of trash all over the county which often makes it way down the various banks to the rivers and streams. Another matter for consideration is the large number of sink holes in our area. In the past, people quite often would throw their trash in sinkholes and down hillsides. Now we have dumps to hold our trash.

It is still a concern that there is so much trash laying about. Recently the county picked up trash along my road. That was maybe two weeks ago. Today as we about our errands fro the day, my daughter made up a little diversion of saying litter each time she saw trash by the side of the road. Need I say, she talked the ENTIRE trip. Litter, litter litter litter litter litter, etc. for 20 minutes. Yikes!

This trash will eventually make its way into our water - our DRINKING water. That's it. Clean Sweep Week starts on October 22, 2007. Use that week to make an extra effort to clean up your trash and better yet, don't throw it on the ground in the first place. All during clean sweep week, you will be able to take all sorts of trash to the dump without paying the dumping fee. Take advantage of this opportunity to improve our county's greatest resource by starting to pick up your trash this week. Also remember to securely fasten and tarp your loads on the way to the dump. That way the trash won't distribute itself along the road on the way to the dump.

Remember Operation Clean Sweep starts on October 22 and runs through October 27.