Names last a lifetime, often longer. Briefly Grand Lake then Alliance ever since. How about that squirrely guy with “IV” after his name? I’m sure his grandpa’s dad never honestly thought there’d be a “fourth”. Sometime between when I picked up litter downtown for carnival tickets and when I began reporting on the affiliate, Alliance Clean Community System (ACCS) became Keep Alliance Beautiful (KAB). Ahh, the intricacies of deciding on a fresh moniker.
Several months ago, KAB staff, volunteers and a paid mover or two relocated our downtown office from the second floor of Bank of the West to the northeast space in the lower level of the City Municipal Building. Main destinations for the contents and furnishings were: new office, recycling center, Mission Store, trash or to anybody who wanted to lug anything extra home. A box with my name on it began to fill not too far into the process. The highlights of my haul included outdated KAB swag and technology, such as a mini cassette recorder. However, the best prize has proven to be a set of binders chronicling two eras of the organization: the early to mid-1980s and the same time frame a decade later. I find the latter more interesting since that’s when I became familiar with ACCS.
Norma Kuhlman served as Alliance Clean Community coordinator in 1993 – the same year I would begin working for her husband Fred, then publisher of the Alliance Times-Herald. He was on board with recycling at the daily (except Sundays) newspaper. One clipping shows Rex Johnson, Fred and Lisa Fraedrich unloading rolls of recycled newsprint. The cutline explains, “. . . this is the first recycled newsprint to be used in the history of the Times-Herald.” At that time, newspaper readership levels also meant full-size Dumpsters for residents to recycle past issues.
H & H Sanitation (listed as H & H Salvage in the clipping) handled the area’s recycling. The total volume for 1992-93 was on par with recent years. Categories are in stark contrast: newsprint 200 tons, plastic 10 tons, cardboard 100 tons, glass 15 tons and aluminum 7 tons. The population of Alliance was 9,685.
Alliance sure needed a lot of cleaning then – when viewed through ‘90s news coverage and ACCS accounts. That squares with my memory too. My fellow scouts and I always wanted service hours for that next rank, meaning we volunteered to remove trash, weeds and even (after the shift to KAB) semi-precious alley items left in the right-of-way. Was our town really that much shabbier than now and how much? That is tricky to quantify.
Narratives submitted by ACCS for annual statewide and national awards, as well as newspaper clippings, tout major changes and partnerships in Alliance that square with the organization’s mission. An excerpt, on City letterhead, “Alliance looks to its Clean Community System as the coordinating body which makes it possible to educate adults and youth about integrated solid waste issues, city ordinances, litter abatement and other environmental concerns. ACCS coordinates many public land and roadside cleanups. Currently three city department heads serve on the ACCS board.” Honors for 1993 alone included: the Keep Nebraska Beautiful Environmental Award – first place in the 2,501-10,000 population and overall as the Deanie Anderson Award winner. The sister cities of Alliance and Beatrice were first and second, respectively, in the National Clean Community Systems contest.
The Alliance landfill still contains bags from ACCS cleanups. It opened 30 years ago as a prototype for others in the state, as the former facility closed. The site consisted of four cells conforming with new state and federal regulations. “How long this landfill lasts will depend on the citizens of Alliance and their willingness to reuse, reduce and recycle,” Norma said.
Exactly when and why the name changed from Alliance Clean Community System to Keep Alliance Beautiful seems insignificant. I know our streets, yards and alleys could always be cleaner though it is easy to see the beauty of blooming flowers and freshly painted facades. Education, beautification and recycling remain keys to KAB’s mission. As far as our community’s willingness to embrace the three R’s Norma emphasized since ‘93? We could have done better. We still can.