Rethink Rockmart back out cleaning the streets

Rethink Rockmart hit the streets once again for a successful cleanup day that spanned more neighborhoods and more bags of trash than July’s neighborhood cleaning session.

The group also saw an increase in attendance during the cleanup day with more teenagers and adults agreeing to take up arms and bag local litter.

After congregating at the city complex’s gym, members were divided into groups and sent to tackle different streets and neighborhoods around Rockmart’s downtown.

Rethink Rockmart founding member Sherman Ross and company took to Pearl Street and surrounding areas; Other groups disposed of trash dirtying the banks of College Street and surrounding areas.

“Eventually, I’d like for home owners to take the responsibility upon themselves,” Ross said. “It’s like the broken window theory. They kept breaking windows in New York, and the city kept fixing them. Eventually the vandals just got tired. I think it works the same way with litter.”

The Rethink Rockmart group came prepared with gloves, buckets, weed eaters, and picker-uppers during the weekend session that were necessary for cleansing some of the trash that was on the sidewalks and grass.

“I’ve picked up some bad stuff,” Ross joked. “Someone here must really like Corona Light,” Rethink member Debbie Ross joked.

Smashed beer bottles were just some of the garbage items that filled the group’s trash bags.

Also removed from the neighborhoods were non-decaying plastic, hundreds of cigarette buds, silverware, junk food wrappers, Styrofoam, and at one point even a dead cat.

The items that become litter in the first place are disheartening, but the removal of dangerous, ugly litter that can become a health hazard is thanks to dedicated local citizens.

Approximately 10 trash bags were filled by the Ross group alone, and the filled baggage was tied up and left for the city to collect in 3 different locations.

“I filled up two of the big, black bags and 2 of the white ones,” Debbie mentioned.

With registration ending at 9 a.m., the group worked until approximately 12 p.m. before parting ways after a job done well. The next community clean up date is yet undecided, but Rethink Rockmart is an active group that meets on the third Thursday of each month.

Rethink Rockmart is a group concerned with restoring and maintaining various aspects of the city whether it be aesthetics, hazards, or reputation.

The group often works on housing rehabilitation, reuse projects, and revitalization efforts in the form of directly taking action and educating others.

Those interested in joining the efforts of Rethink Rockmart are urged to visit https:// www. facebook.com/rethinkrockmart/.

A website designed to help consumers find out information on the best lenders in the country has placed Rockmart in the Top 100 cities to start a small business in the state of Georgia.

Lendedu.com’s blog — which includes information on a variety of credit and business- based issues — put Rockmart in the 72nd spot on the list among the Top 100. That’s out of more than 600 cities out of the state.

Polk County Chamber of Commerce’s Tamaka Hudson said the news was just another positive sign that the local economy is doing good, and primed for an even better performance.

“This is wonderful news for Polk County,” Hudson said. “We are blessed to have a close-knit community that supports one another. The cities, county and the Chamber all offer some form of assistance to small business. It takes all of us working together to build a businessfriendly community.”

Development Authority of Polk County Chair David Williams added that Rockmart’s inclusion on the list is just another feather in the cap for the city and county.

“We are excited that Polk County and the City of Rockmart have been recognized in this way. This confirms what we have felt about our community for some time. We are all working together to make Polk County a place where business and industry can thrive,” Williams said. “The City of Rockmart puts a lot of effort into providing a good business environment and a positive quality of life for all of its citizens. Recent successes, such as the announcement at Meggitt and the addition of new commercial businesses show that those efforts are paying off. It is good to see this additional confirmation.”

Several other cities in the area around Polk County also made the list. Those included Bremen in the third, Tallapoosa in the 23rd spot from Haralson County, and Cartersville i n 70th place, and White in 83rd from Bartow County.

The blog explained that their methodology of making up the list compiled data that is available from Onboard Informatics, and took into account the latest population rates, tax data and income projection figures, among others. It weighed population as 20 percent of their overall scoring, along with 40 percent for the income score and an additional 40 percent on their scoring of expenses.