Local

Volunteers remove hundreds of tires from Spring Garden hillside

PITTSBURGH — The Martin Luther King Foundation encouraged people to remember the reverend by participating in a day of service.

On Monday, a group in Pittsburgh volunteered to remove hundreds of tires that have been littering a Spring Garden hillside for years.

About 30 volunteers hiked through the snow and the cold to reach an area behind Schubert Street to tackle a massive pile of tires.

"We found not just 20 or 30 tires but an estimated 400 to 500 tires," said Hannah Geiser of Allegheny CleanWays.

Alyssa Weisensee is responsible for getting the group there.

I've lived here my whole life, as has my dad and his mom, so we've been here a while, and it has always been pretty dirty," Weisensee said.

Weisensee said the dumpsite has been there as long as she can remember.

"When I was a kid, we weren't really allowed to play here, specifically because of the debris and because of the trash.  My dad wouldn't want us getting hurt on anything that had been left here," she said.

When Weisensee found out about a group called Allegheny CleanWays that organizes community cleanups, she alerted the group to the tires.

Within a few hours Monday, Weisensee's group had a growing pile of tires ready to be hauled away.

"It's beautiful, the hikes up through here, they are really pretty.  They'll be especially more so now," she said.