Deschutes Parkway encampment gets a cleanup
A work crew from the company Advance Environmental cleaned up debris in the homeless encampment along Deschutes Parkway in Olympia Wednesday morning.
Workers dressed in neon green vests began picking up trash around 9 a.m. near the Fourth Avenue bridge, working their way south along the train tracks.
In addition to picking up the trash, they also used a backhoe to left debris into a dumpster.
Pink ribbons were wrapped around tents to denote campers’ personal property. According to Teal Russell, the city’s homeless response coordinator, the cleanup crew were instructed not to disturb anything wrapped in the pink ribbon.
The day prior, camp residents clumped garbage into distinguishable piles to help the cleanup workers identify it, Russell wrote in an email.
Initially, the city had said that camp residents could not be present during the cleanup, but Russell later clarified that those with limited mobility could stay in their tents.
Volunteers who work with mutual aid organizations set up a table with coffee and canned foods, and others observed from near the train tracks or across the street. A few residents stopped by for coffee, but otherwise not many were visible at the camp on Wednesday morning.
Two Washington State Patrol vehicles were briefly parked by Capitol Lake, but otherwise no police were present while and Olympian reporter and photographer were there.
Cleanup is planned to continue on Thursday and Friday morning, if necessary, Russell said.
According to the city’s Public Works Department, the city paid Advance Environmental $31,000 to conduct the cleanup.
Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley said the encampment touches on property owned by several different people, each of whom provided written authorization to the city for the cleanup.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 1:46 PM.
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