Farragut Rotary team cleans Turkey Creek

Tom KingFarragut

Community Service is a major focus of the Rotary Club of Farragut (RCF) – even if it means getting your feet wet and dealing with mud. The club’s Stream Team this past Saturday cleaned a portion of Turkey Creek that flows behind Costco and down to David’s Abbey Carpet on Kingston Pike.

The 10-person team began at 9:30 a.m. This section of creek meanders through woods, behind businesses that front Kingston Pike and behind a subdivision. Access to the creek is not easy. That said, it’s clear some people disrespect the creek and throw discarded items and trash into it.

Rotarian Howard Fass led the volunteers from RCF and the Pellissippi State Community College Rotaract Club. “Some of the stuff and junk we found was unrecognizable,” Fass said. “We have no idea how to describe some of it.”

Here is a list of what he “knows” they found in the creek:

  • 2 tires
  • 5 large bags of trash
  • A complete bed frame
  • Pieces of prime junk
  • Discarded pipes and what may be a lighted decoration
  • And 2 large pieces of “who knows what?”

“No one fell in this year and the water was a little lower and that helped,” Howard said. “We had a really good time working together and it was a lot of fun.”

Working with Howard from RCF were Alex Barnwell, Tom Woodbery, Jay Povlin, Bill Rice, Jerry Schwallier and Brian Walker. Our other volunteer was Bill’s daughter, Caroline Rice, who took all of the pictures while in the water wearing waders. The two members of the PSCC Rotaract Club were Marc Below and Jonathan Kostamayer.

“We had two really hard-working young guys from the Rotaract club,” Howard added. “They had the energy and worked hard throughout the morning. We had to hustle to keep up with them.”

Farragut Rotary’s Stream Team shows off a small sample of what they pulled out of Turkey Creek

Tom King is a career journalist and a past president of the Rotary Club of Farragut. If you want more information about Rotary or are interested in attending a meeting or joining, please email Tom. The club meets every Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at Fox Den Country Club.

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