Despite an overflow crowd flocking to area lakes this July 4 holiday weekend, the most heavily-used areas of Beltzville Lake State Park have already been cleaned of much of the weekend's litter.

"It was a busy weekend, of course. This is typically our busiest holiday of the year. We had a lot of folks coming to enjoy the park," said Park Manager Kevin Koflanovich, who noted that the park entrance was closed for a short time on July 4 when the parking lots reached capacity. Beltzville has approximately 900 parking spots, plus the space for an additional 400 cars if conditions allow."In previous years, if you came to the park on the fifth of July, there was a lot of litter laying around," said Koflanovich."No matter what the venue, whether it's a park or a concert grounds, whenever you get a lot of people in one place, there will be litter," he added, noting that the park's maintenance staff of nine stays busy cleaning up after visitors throughout the summer in addition to their regular duties and maintenance work throughout the park's 3,002 acres."We pick it up quickly and bounce right back," said Koflanovich. "People are becoming more responsible for their trash, and we have an excellent staff."