Spring has somehow turned quickly into summer with extra warm temperatures arriving quickly. I've been outside working in the yard - planting and weeding - and can attest that it is a lot of hard, laborious work; it seems like it is never-ending.
While the hard work part is true, the yard does look nice, making the effort worthwhile.
That being said, last week I had a longtime Pequot Lakes resident say to me, "Nancy, no matter how hard the town works to make the Thriving Communities ideas and projects come to fruition, it won't matter a bit if the town looks bad. There are numerous residences that simply aren't cleaning up their properties or mowing their yards."
As you drive around town, you will have to agree that she was perfectly correct; we do have some work to do to make our community look nice.
Because the Lions Club did not have a spring cleanup/drop-off-your-trash day this year, I decided to research how you could rid yourself of unwanted "stuff" that might be littering your yard or home. It seems that getting rid of "stuff" is half the problem - once you know where to take it, you can do it and cross it off the list.
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My first stop was to talk to Bob Walker, son of Grant Walker who owns a business on County Road 107 in Pequot that does a lot of recycling. They will take any appliances or metal items for free. If it's tires, TVs or computers you want to dispose of, there will be a charge. If you have cars, trucks, tractors or machinery, they will most likely pay you for these.
All you have to do is go to their shop between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The address is 28642 County Road 107 - at the bend of north 107, just south of the Preserve Golf Course.
Now, what about getting rid of furniture? Well, that's not as local or handy, but isn't that hard and you can certainly make the effort. You can take them to the Crow Wing County Landfill (out past the airport on Highway 210 out of Brainerd) or go north up Highway 371 to the Pine River Transfer Station.
It is the hope of our community to accomplish many great things in the next year or two - the center of town park, a public works building, sidewalks to get around town, just to name a few. We all need to work together to accomplish these things.
But making the neighborhoods of our town look nice by keeping lawns mowed and yards free of clutter and junk will give us a great start to an outstanding community. Thank you!
Nancy Adams is Pequot Lakes mayor.
