Cardinal Cleanup Day April 23
City councils generally divide up several areas of oversight among the councilmembers. Some areas are shared as a group, but oftentimes specific liaison assignments, committee advisory positions, and other adjunct roles are headed by one or another councilmember.
Paige Byram is the Soda Springs councilperson whose responsibility includes the Parks. In that capacity, she is currently spearheading a community-wide cleanup day, which will involve potentially over 350 students from the seventh and eight grades, as well as anyone from the public who would like to help.
The event is planned for April 23 from 2 - 4 pm.
The cleanup will take place at the city parks throughout Soda Springs, primarily the City Park, Hooper Park and Kelly Park.
“I’m over the parks for City Council, and I feel like that’s something in our community that is amazing, but it struggles a little bit sometimes,” Byram said. “The kids used to do an Earth Day cleanup day—I don’t know why it stopped, but I feel like if we can get the teenagers involved, they will take care of stuff. If they are picking up trash and helping keep it clean, I think they will be more observant when they are there and try to take care of things.”
While cleanup events are part of the spring calendar, this represents a potential new tradition. “I don’t think it was ever called the Cardinal Cleanup, but I do think we should bring it back,” Byram said.
She has been the organizing force behind public events before—the Soda Sip Easter Egg Hunt was something she came up with during COVID in 2021. Along with friends, she felt like the community needed something to bring it together and provide an outlet for the families that were living under quarantine at the time. This project is undertaken under less vexing circumstances, but will hopefully serve a similar purpose of uniting people in the city. “I would love for the whole community to come out—bring gloves, bring rakes, whatever their specialties or interests are.”
Byram has a few specific points of focus in mind. “I want to put the frisbee golf course at Kelly Park back together. It’s a little sad right now. I want to clean up overgrown trails and get them ready for the Cardinal Classic. The Fourth of July is coming, so if we can get benches painted and give our parks a fresh start to the year.”
Since moving to the area over 15 years ago Byram has spent a lot of time in the local parks with her kids. “It’s fun to see them grow and thrive,” she said. “But one thing I did hear a number of times while running for City Council is that people were concerned about the condition of the parks.” While there are no specific issues to point to, a general spring cleaning would certainly do wonders.
Caribou Medical Center, who are one of the sponsors of the Cardinal Cleanup, is contracting with a company to come in and cut back branches and have things ready for the school kids. Bayer, Itafos and Turner are donating safety equipment and gloves. Guardian Realty and Point S Tire are donating water, bags, and other materials. MR&E will be collecting and removing the gathered debris.
“We have so many parks in our community, which is awesome, but they could always use more attention,” Byram said. “It’s just a lot of work, so I think this will help.”
