Rotary’s 14th Annual Jim Van Memorial Outing was a great time for all and a great success. This year’s event was held on the 80-acre Canterbury Woods property that Rotary recently sold to Steve and Carol Shuckra.
Herb Lemcool, Beth Karczewski, Ralph Bednarz, Ken Musson, and Kathy Bussell joined forces with Marti VanEenenaam-Iwanicki (Jim’s daughter), Michael Beckwith (Jim’s son-in-law), 5 Conservation District staff, and the Shuckra’s to put the finishing touches on the restoration of an old dumpsite.
It is estimated that locals used this old dumpsite located on the former state land as far back as the 1930s. As part of the purchase agreement, Rotary hired an excavator to bury a majority of the old broken glass bottles, cans, and other non-toxic household debris but there were several places where the broken glass was still evident. As Rotary did, the Shuckra’s have elected to leave the property open to the public to use for hiking as they have for decades and were concerned that the broken glass posed a danger to humans and their pets. The work bee consisted of picking up any remaining pieces of glass that were evident, spreading 10 cubic yards of top-soil to cover potential hot-spots of debris, seeding (fescue & rye) the nearly 20,000 square-foot former dumpsite, and constructing a fence to block unwanted vehicle access.
As is the tradition after every Jim Van Outing the group ended the day with a toast. This year’s toast was to Rotary and the Shuckra’s for preserving this beautiful piece of land that sits overlooking the beautiful Boardman River Valley.
