Parade litter chokes Broadway

The festive floats rolling down Broadway on Sunday night gave way to windblown trash Monday morning, leaving business owners to clean up the rubbish.

The city of Cape Girardeau ran a street sweeper early Monday after the Downtown Merchants Association Parade of Lights, but city officials say organizations that sponsor parades take responsibility for trash on the sidewalks. At noon, downtown remained littered with soda cups, candy wrappers and informational pamphlets handed out during the parade.

Ta Juan Parish, owner of Umpkins Beauty Supply on Broadway, said she drove by early on her way to the gym and saw the mess.

"I thought I'd have to come back here and sweep before I could open, but the wind had blown most of it away," she said.

She and those working at nearby businesses agreed that trash cans could help, at least temporary ones just for parades. Deniz Cakir at Otacom Computer Systems and Jennifer Lyons at Sun and Tan said they picked up trash from the front of those shops, a post-parade duty they expected.

The ninth annual parade attracted 126 entries -- the largest number ever -- and thousands of area residents lined the streets, often two or three deep, to watch Christmas light-covered floats roll past.

Kent Zickfield, parade chairman for the third year, said the Downtown Merchants Association typically contracts a non-profit group such as the Boy Scouts to clean up after downtown events. It would have been dangerous to do so in the dark Sunday night, he said, and trash barrels would be an added expense and not necessarily used.

"We put them on Main Street, and I've seen a beer bottle sitting on the street 10 feet from a trash can," he said.

"I apologize to the business owners who have to deal with the trash. I feel bad for them."

But the positives of the parade far outweigh the trash problem, Zickfield said. It has been a trying year with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and people needed an event to bring them together and make them feel good.

hhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 121