Scout gets tons of trash out of Halfway River

Eric Rasmussen orchestrated the removal of 6 tons of trash from the banks of the Halfway River just downstream of the Bagburn Hill Road. Bridge on the Newtown side Saturday, March 24, 2012.

The effort was Rasmussen’s Eagle Scout project.

Among the items removed by Rasmussen and his volunteers were two car chassis, a transmission, batteries and two old cast iron water heaters came out of the stream and a huge pile of debris consisting of car doors, hoods, car parts and carpets and whole lot of other junk.

Nutmeg TU President Ron Merly helped roll a cast iron heater out of the stream and cut it in half with a Sawzall.

“This kid went way above and beyond,” Merly said. “He spent over 100 hours attending town meetings in Monroe and Newtown as the river splits the border of those two towns. He then spent every day after school down at the site with his uncle and a battery-powered Sawzall cutting up debris so that it could be dragged up a hill and into a Dumpster. He secured the dumpster from the company for free and got them to donate the money for the scrap to the Boy Scouts.”