Running toward Trashmore’s future

Mount Trashmore was a destination for our garbage for more than 40 years, including countless heartbreaking hauls of flood debris from 2008 to 2012. There's 6.4 million tons of refuse in that 208-foot high hill towering over Cedar Rapids' southwest side.

But on Saturday, runners taking part in the Trashmore 5K, the 'Dash to Bash Epilepsy,” will be striding their way around and up the mountain. It's an encouraging sign that Trashmore's trash is the past, and its new life as a recreation destination is around the bend.

The race itself is a praiseworthy endeavor. Former city parks commissioner Dale Todd organized the event, which will raise money for the Iowa Epilepsy Foundation. Runners' generosity will help a worthy cause and buy them a grueling uphill race, a novel challenge in Iowa that may put the event on runners' radar well beyond Eastern Iowa.

'I don't want to scare people,” Todd told The Gazette's Rick Smith. 'But this is not your mother's 5K.”

And Trashmore, someday, won't just be an old landfill.

Local officials have long dreamed of transforming the landfill into a recreation attraction. Mayor Don Canney looked at Trashmore and saw ski slopes. Two City Council members did ski on the hill in 2008, but the site's reopening post-flood put dreams of its future on hold.

Now, it's easy to envision Mount Trashmore as a place to hike, bike and spend time admiring its terrific view of the city and beyond.

It sits next to the historic Czech Village and near the thriving New Bohemia neighborhood. There's little doubt that it has the potential to be a popular spot in the decades to come, much like other converted landfills in places such as Virginia Beach, Va., and Staten Island.

The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency has hired an engineering firm to create a master plan for the site.

It will take time before the public has full access to Trashmore. The mountain of decomposing garbage will need years to settle as methane gas continues to be collected at the site. It took decades to build the mountain, and its transformation won't happen overnight.

But the sight of runners climbing Trashmore on Saturday will serve as powerful visual evidence of the site's future. The Trashmore 5K, the 'Dash to Bash Epilepsy” begins at 8 a.m. Saturday in front of the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library.

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