“Bag Ladies” Nancy McShane & Ann Roberti do their part for a cleaner Andes.

By Jack McShane
With input from Nancy McShane and Ann Roberti.You might have observed two, my wife Nancy and our friend Ann Roberti of Dingle Hill, doing what they would like others to do, picking up accumulated trash along the Tremperskill Road filling large plastic bags. Hence the name “bag ladies”. When doing this, they were encouraged by the folks who stopped and picked up the filled bags and carted them to the transfer station. This activity, which is driven by a great desire to have Andes well prepped and nice looking not only for themselves, but for the people of what I call the great annual migration.

Andes is a nexus or confluence of human migratory currents. Being somewhat of a naturalist, I have always been interested in species migrations. Spring is here and as you may have noticed the migrations have begun in earnest.

There are three distinct flocks of migrants of a specific species, homo sapiens, snowbirds, although not avian, are returning from their safe southern havens far from the terrors of Andes winters. Then there are “flatlander” second-homers who are escaping the madness and stress of the cities. The third group is the tourists who frequent our antique shops and restaurants. The destination to which all of these folks migrate will be all the more welcoming due to the work of these two bag ladies.

The bag ladies take great pride in their endeavors and would like to encourage others to participate, not only on the road in front of where they live but maybe a road they often frequent. The best days to do it are, of course, Wednesday and Saturday when the transfer station is open. Our town supervisor and board have agreed to have a Community Cleanup Day, which will occur one day in early June. The Catskill Watershed Corp. will be supplying gloves and garbage bags. Please look for the announcement of the day in our local businesses, and join these two bag ladies and the Andes Central School Outdoors Club in making Andes even more beautiful.

Knowing my interest in birds, Nancy states the following: “speaking of birds, the ‘Bag Ladies’ can kill two birds with one stone. We pick up roadside trash and get exercise, too. It’s a win-win situation. We do it for ourselves just because we live here and enjoy looking at the picturesque landscape sans trash.”

They walked, and picked 5 miles on the Tremperskill Road, and, 15 bags of trash later, they felt they had accomplished much. Won’t you join them and others who do the same?~