Crews, volunteers respond to clean up Ritzville

Mayor Linda Kadlec started Tuesday’s Ritzville City Council meeting by delivering praise for the community response following Sunday night’s freak storm.

Public works crews, utility crews, Ritzville Golf Association members, area farmers and citizens have been working throughout the city to clean up downed trees and power lines.

“We haven’t seen a storm of this magnitude in many years,” Kadlec said. “The volunteerism from the farmers and community members … so many people pulled together. It makes me proud to be a citizen of Ritzville.”

Volunteers began arriving at the golf course and city park first thing Monday morning. They continued to arrive throughout the day and were right back at it Tuesday morning.

An exhausted public works director, Larry Swift said Tuesday that his crew was very thankful for all the support and donations from various farm operations and local businesses as well.

All of the downed trees were removed from the park by the end of the day on Tuesday as grain trucks and flat bed trailers joined the city’s vehicles in hauling away the debris.