Furloughed EPA Employees Clean Up Alexandria City Park

If you happen to walk through Oronoco Bay Park in Alexandria this weekend, you may notice it looks a bit nicer.

While all of the Enviornmental Protection Agency is on a forced furlough Friday, May 24, due to the federal government sequester, a group of EPA employees volunteered services to the city park, painting the lampposts and pulling trash from the shoreline.

“We care about the environment, not politics,” said Martha Shimkin, a member of today’s clean-up crew.

Park Manager Eugene Loew met the group on the drizzly, cool morning with ladders, paint and trash bags, gave some instructions and thanked the group for offering their time.

“It was nice. People using the park stopped to talk with us and thanked us for volunteering,” commented Mary Clock-Rust, another furloughed employee.

The group painted all the lampposts in the park and collected three large bags of trash.

Asked why he would give his unpaid time to this project, Lou D’Amico responded, “It makes lemonade from the lemons we’ve been handed...and it was fun.”