Teams of people in protective gloves picked up far fewer discarded needles

ST. JOHNSBURY—Teams of people in protective gloves picked up far fewer discarded needles in town on Tuesday than expected. Starting in the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail parking lot on South Main Street, one crew nearly walked all of Bay Street before finding a single syringe. About 25 people gathered in the St. Johnsbury Community Hub on Railroad Street Tuesday morning to get supplies and direction before taking to the streets to seek out needles disposed of improperly. The initiative was driven by community feedback that there are a lot of needles out there. Carolyn Towne, director of substance misuse prevention at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, didn’t know the number of needles collected in a span of about two hours, but she said they were expecting to find more.