Creek Volunteers Clean Dundalk's Election Sign Litter

The volunteers of Clean Bread and Cheese Creek are interested in more than just the health of an important Chesapeake Bay tributary.

They want to live in a clean community, period.

To that end, six volunteers from the group swept across Dundalk Thursday evening to pick up and recycle many of the election signs left behind by campaign workers who put the signs up but rarely return to take them down.

Citing the leftover signs as an eyesore and a safety hazard, Bread and Cheese Creek President John Long said in an email to Dundalk Patch that the group picked up and recycled 208 signs and dozens of steel sign frames from which the signs had been removed.

"It bothers me that many of the groups who placed the political signs talk about civic responsibility and how voting for their cause is the "right thing to do", but cleaning up after your event /election is over is civic responsibility too and the right thing to do," Long said. "Frankly, I would have trouble taking any group seriously that cannot practice what they preach."

The volunteers separated the signs and issued the following report: The signs removed included 82 “Vote for Question 7”, 40 “Vote Against Question 7”, 34 “Vote No on Question 4, 5, and 6”, 29 “Vote for Question 4, 5, 6 and 7”, eight elect Dutch Ruppersberger, seven elect Rob Sabhoni, five elect Nancy Jacobs, two elect Dan Bongino, and one “Vote for Question 6”.

"You may wish to note the largest quantity of signs left behind was paid for by “Maryland First Now Voter Yes,” who paid for both “Vote Yes on Question 7” and the "Vote for Questions 4, 5, 6, and 7” messages for a total of 111 signs left on our communities streets," Long wrote in the email.

In addition to left over signs being a hazard to drivers, where signs often block the view of oncoming cars at intersections, the empty metal frames are a threat in other ways, according to Long.

Without the signs, the frames are nearly invisible and pose a tripping hazard to pedestrians and cause problems for crews that mow the grass and otherwise maintain the community's median strips, Long said.

The volunteers—Geroge Fisher, John Melzer, Nikki Wolfe, Tamsyn Long, John P. Long and John T. Long Jr.—swept through several areas, including around North Point Library, General John Stricker Middle and Dundalk Middle schools, Logan Elementary School, Merritt Boulevard, Wise Avenue, Holabird Avenue, North Point Road, Trapp Road, North Point Boulevard and a few smaller roads, according to Long. 

The group removed signs only from public property, and might have missed some because they quit when it got too dark to safely continue.

Clean Bread and Cheese Creek might be a small organization with little funding, but its spirit, determination and desire to work hard for the community is always available in abundance, Long said.

"We would like to thank our volunteers for coming through for us once again, braving traffic and doing a great job of helping us to keep our community clean," Long said in the email.

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