Tired of tires, scout troop cleans up woods in North Huntingdon

Ryan Zaya has seen too many tires and too much trash strewn on the side of local roads.

So, he and his fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 284 in Irwin took action Sunday afternoon.

Zaya, 16, an 11th grader at Hempfield Area High School, along with five fellow scouts and parents, traipsed through the woods in a secluded spot off Frog Road near the Larimar section of North Huntingdon and collected more than 30 old tires, some which appeared to have been discarded for years.

They also bagged trash and cleared out other debris.

“We’re trying to clean up the community. We’ve been picking up trash for a while because we want to make the community a nicer place,” Zaya said. “Tires are one of the biggest pieces of trash out there and no one cleans it up. I can’t believe we’ve gotten this many from this spot.”

The Frog Road site, just off Route 993, cleaned Sunday by the scouts was the second location they searched for tires. The scouts originally planned to clean a spot near Hahntown-Wendel Road but someone apparently beat them to the punch as a large number of of tires appeared to be recently collected and piled up for removal.

Both locations the scouts visited Sunday were suggested by married Irwin couple Lisa Cimbala and Alan Hill, who spearheaded an effort last year to clean up discarded tires along local waterways and river beds .

“They are real pollution, and they are ugly. We just want to get rid of them,” Cimbala said.

According to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, discarded tires can present environmental, health, and safety hazards. Rainwater accumulates in tire piles and can create ideal environment for mosquitoes, which are known to transmit West Nile Virus.

The state requires tires to be specially discarded and recycled.

Zaya and the scouts loaded tires onto a trailer and will deliver them to Bridgestone Tires, which sponsored Sunday’s cleanup effort. The company promised to discard the tires once collected and cleaned, he said.

“If we get enough, they said they’ll help us annually so we can do this once a year and maybe more,” Zaya said.

Zaya’s mother, Theresa, said the effort by her son and his fellow scouts is something to be admired.

“I am extremely proud of my son and his troop. They are going to be great men when they grow up,” said Theresa Zaya.