Omaha residents take charge, clean up park
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 10/12/2020, 12:45 p.m.
A group of Omaha residents has banded together to clean up a park so children have a clean and safe place to play./Credit: WOWT
By Lileana Pearson
Omaha, NE (WOWT) -- After watching their community park fall into disrepair, neighbors have had enough -- as one woman went to to make sure her children have a safe and clean park to grow up with.
At Spring Lake Park south of I-80 and 20th Street on Sunday could be seen the latest haul from weekend cleanup: tires, shopping carts and whole couches — and there is still a lot more work to be done.
Rachael Horvath moved her family to this area about three years ago.
At the time she says some families wouldn’t let their kids play in the woods because it wasn’t uncommon to find people living in tents there.
After a couple of years of asking the city to clean up the park, she says she knew it was on her to get the job done.
She wasn’t allowed to bring her truck back in the woods so she and her husband took out an $8,000 loan for an ATV and they’ve been hauling trash out of the woods.
At first, it was just them and neighbors but since then it’s grown to include a passionate group of individuals who have turned the park around.
“If the park is beautiful and safe in the neighborhood, it’s pretty good but if this park becomes dangerous we have people doing illegal activities here. But it all affects the houses around us and that affects me and my family,” Horvath said.
