Couple does its best to keep Sultan’s streets clean

Published 11:09 pm Monday, September 21, 2009

SULTAN — Bob Knuckey didn’t plan to spend his retirement cleaning up other people’s messes.

“Oh no,” he said. “You couldn’t have caught me dead going out in the street, picking up someone’s litter.”

Marriage makes you do funny things, though.

Bob Knuckey and his wife, Teresa Knuckey, officially founded an Adopt-a-Street program in 2008 that has helped tidy up their town.

The program unofficially began in 2005. Bob had been hospitalized with a heart condition, and so, to take her mind off her troubles, Teresa started cleaning up trash along the streets.

“When you’re out there picking up litter, that’s all you’re thinking about,” said Teresa, 68. “It’s a no-brain type of thing.”

The task was so rewarding that she kept it up after Bob was released from the hospital with a pacemaker. He eventually joined her outside, trash bag in hand.

“I kind of liked it,” the 76-year-old said. “It was relaxing.”

It was also needed. The couple recalled cleaning up the bushes around a downtown gazebo in January.

“It was so terrible with beer cans and whiskey bottles and any kind of can you can imagine,” Bob said. “We picked up over 700.”

That sounded about right to city officials, who praised the Knuckeys’ work in the city along U.S. 2. The city can’t afford to have its staff deal with the garbage. Instead, officials have endorsed the Knuckeys’ program, providing yellow trash bags and agreeing to haul them away.

The Knuckeys have attracted attention beyond City Hall. Neighbors have asked to help. Boy Scout troops and elementary school classes have joined in. Now, the Knuckeys have an e-mail list with more than 100 helpers.

“I’d like to have about 500,” Teresa said.

The Knuckeys let volunteers work at their own pace, sending out an occasional e-mail blast to highlight a block that needs work. The couple emphasizes that without those volunteers, the city would be in worse shape. The Knuckeys remember all too well when they could fill a few trash bags in as many hours.

“Now we’re lucky if we get half a bag,” Bob said. “It’s really working.”

Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com.