Simpson’s Rest Clean-up: a team sport

TRINIDAD — The clean-up at Simpson’s Rest, a noted Trinidad landmark, took most of the week to complete, with hands-on involvement by groups of volunteers and the city’s graffiti clean-up task force. The volunteers were made up of “civic minded individuals”, according to City Administrator Gabriel Engeland, and Explorers from Post 1186. The Explorers are sponsored by the Trinidad Police Department and are involved with learning first responder skills. The graffiti clean-up task force is made of a group of first responders from the City of Trinidad, police department, EMS, and the fire department, which provided ladder trucks for use of the cleanup crew. This was a necessity to reach the highest portions of the rock walls lining the road to the summit, and to steam clean off the paint taggers had used to mark the area. By Saturday, October 3 most of the clean-up had been finished except for some errant styrofoam cups and snack bags that were blowing in the wind. City volunteers stayed warm and busy in the cold breeze, setting up park benches and bear-proof trash cans at the top of the rest. The next step will be erecting a fence along the edge of Simpson’s Rest in an effort to dissuade lovers who desire to leap or motorists who can’t stop.