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Plucky pensioner saves council a
fortune
29.07.10
by Linda McGrory
A PLUCKY pensioner is saving a cash-strapped council
thousands of euro by going out at dawn each day to
pick up rubbish on the streets of his hometown.
John Putt, has been lifting litter in Moville, Co
Donegal, every day for nearly three years since
moving to a local retirement complex with his wife,
Mary.
"I like to see the place nice and clean and I like
knowing that visitors will see the town at its
best," said the 72-year old.
"Some people think I'm crazy, but I get a lot of
satisfaction from it and I see it as a good
community service."
A retired nurse manager, English-born John gets up
at dawn seven days a week and is on his unpaid
litter beat before 7am. On Sunday, he puts his hi-viz
jacket over his best suit to do his two-hour round,
before popping over for early morning mass, where he
serves as a eucharistic minister. |
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"It's lovely and quiet
and there's no-one to argue with you at that time of
the morning," he jokes. But he says times have
changed in the recession.
"When I first started, the Celtic Tiger was still
around and money was flowing from the trees. I would
regularly pick up between 10 euro and 20 euro in
coins and once I found 86 euro. Yesterday, I found
one cent!" He says his pet hate is filthy discarded
baby's nappies. |
Despite the odd local
jibe, the father-of-three clearly doesn't do it for
the cash. "I've been cleaning up all my life. I was
deputy head boy at a boarding school and you had to
be tidy there. When I was working as a nurse, they
nick-named my nursing home, 'Putt's Palace'."
The seaside town of Moville has no full-time street
cleaning service, however, two council workers empty
the public bins twice a week. They have a good
rapport with the unofficial street cleaner and kit
him out with heavy-duty bin bags, litter pickers,
gloves and a place to bring the rubbish. He is much
appreciated too by local shop-keepers and sometimes
gets his breakfast free at a local diner.
While he is a member of the local tidy towns group,
John's early-bird work |
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is his own initiative.
Moville Tidy Towns chairperson, Marian McDonald
said: "John is one in a million. You couldn't pay
someone to do what he does. Thanks to him, when
people wake up every day, the town is spotless." |
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