Despite a different time, threatening skies and a slow start, Saturday morning's annual community cleanup day was another success, according Ron Whitehead, president of the Riverview Community Association, which hosted the event.

By the time the event ended at around noon on Sept. 10, Whitehead said the group had filled its allotted number of seven large outdoor metal trash receptacles with trash, debris and unwanted items from residents' basements, attics and yards.

"It's a good idea," said Kessler Court resident Derrick Miller, who brought several bags of trash that had been sitting in his back yard, an old fan, a backyard grill and several cans of paint to drop off. "People can get rid of their junk."

Several hours into the event, however, five of the large metal outdoor trash receptacles sat yawning and empty on the Riverview Elementary School parking lot.

More than a dozen volunteers stood nearby, upbeat and eager to unload trash and unwanted items from the vehicles that pulled into the empty lot off Kessler Road. Most had been at the site since before 8 a.m.

The lack of traffic at the 7 a.m. scheduled start did not bother Whitehead, who said one resident had arrived at 6:50 a.m. to drop off his unwanted items.

"It's early," Whitehead said as he shook discarded cans of paint to determine if there was enough liquid for them to be set aside for a later run to drop off at Baltimore County's Eastern Sanitary Landfill Facility in White Marsh.

"This is our 13th year," he said. "We've always had it in July."

He said a ruling by the Baltimore County Board of Education that the group had to have insurance in order to use the county school site made the group cancel its summer event.

"I wasn't going to have to pay $100,000 to use a parking lot," he said.

He credited the intercession of 1st District Councilman Tom Quirk, whose district includes Lansdowne as well as Arbutus and Catonsville, and County Executive Kevin Kamenetz with helping to have that requirement set aside.

Quirk was at the site Saturday morning, joined by Cathy Engers and Pete Kriscumas from his staff.

"I think Ron Whitehead and his group do an outstanding job. I really like their passion (for their community)," Quirk said.

"Cathy, Pete and I came out to help support their effort," he said. "We're going to clean up by the footbridge. That area needs a lot of attention."

They returned less than an hour later, bringing with them about a half-dozen black garbage bags straining with the weight of trash and debris.

A gang of volunteers that included Roscoe Fox, an eighth-grader at Lansdowne Middle School, quickly descended on the truck and began unloading the bags.

Fox, Christian Monteil, a sixth grader at Lindale Middle, and Zachary Allewalt, a 10th grader at North County High, were on the job Saturday taking advantage of the opportunity to earn community service hours.

While they worked, Imperial Court resident Mark Jett sat patiently in line in his truck.

He said he had brought trash and other debris left in the alley behind his home.

"I'm trying to keep the alley clean," said Jett, who has lived in the area for nearly 30 years. "The storm (last week) washed everything down the alley.

"It's convenient, instead of going down to the dump," he said.

Other residents may have shared that feeling as the area soon was buzzing with activity.