Marta Siklosi — Siklosi is a Hungarian name — has been in the West End for the last six years. Previously she lived in Lakewood, CO, and for 18 years worked for the Developmental Disabilities Resource Center, helping individuals access their Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security benefits. She often helped disabled people in group homes or others living with their families. Her worked involved navigating government systems and helping people complete their redetermination paperwork.
Life has changed for Siklosi dramatically since she retired from that field and then moved to the Western Slope. Now she’s just so happy to be living in Naturita that she picks up garbage — for free, using her own time, and only because it’s something she wants to do.
Locals have likely seen her working in between Naturita and Nucla, traversing Highway 97. They’ve also probably seen her on Highway 145, picking up trash the long way around to Nucla, and on the Nucla Loop. She’s been doing the clean-up the last two years.
She typically finds papers and plastics, thinks like empty Gatorade containers, along with discarded Pepsi bottles and more. She finds more beverage containers on the Nucla Loop, she said.
Siklosi works alone, and she’s fine with that. The state Department of Transportation gives her orange garbage bags to use. She’s not officially adopted the highways; she simply wants to help keep her community clean.
“I just want to help my community,” she told the Forum Saturday. “I’m so grateful to be living here in Naturita. Nucla and Naturita both are such cool, small communities.”
She said she also gets to experience all four seasons, though the wind can be “iffy” at times, and she gets her exercise by walking the roadside. Some have gotten to know her the last few years, and they wave when they see her. Siklosi said she almost always waves back, but sometimes her hands are full. She does use the “claw” device to pick up trash items.
She agreed the work is rewarding, and she likes the way local roadsides look when they’re free of debris.
“It looks good,” she said. “I’m happy to do it.”
Besides appreciating a lower cost of living in the West End, the views are something she cherishes, and for her those views are even better garbage-free.
She added the San Miguel River and the burro pack race the Nucla-Naturita Chamber of Commerce hosts in the spring are things she loves about the area.
Local EMT and executive director of Hoof & Paw Tonya Stephens has seen Siklosi hard at work for a while now.
Stephens said she agreed Siklosi’s volunteerism is selfless and community-minded.
“I cannot get over how many times I see her out picking up trash that other people have thrown out,” Stephens said. “I really appreciate what she does, and thought she needed to have recognition for what she does as well.”
Siklosi said she knows of Stephens. She said she commends Stephens in her work at the shelter and through EMS. Being a cat person, Siklosi said she couldn’t do what Stephens does every day, because she’d want to adopt every cat she encountered.
She’ll stick to roadside cleanup.
“It’s rewarding within itself, and people are so appreciative,” she said.
