Two tons of trash collected from roadsides

Commissioner Shannon Whitfield says picking up more than two tons of trash along Walker County roads in less than a week is just the start of shifting from four-day to six-day-a-week roadside trash pickups.

A crew consisting of one county employee and a team of inmates collected 4,040 pounds of trash from alongside Schmidt, Fields, Thacker, Kensington, Rock Creek, West Valley and Old Grand Center roads. The cleanup also included Patten Lane, the commissioner said.

Whitfield said he and other officials have received numerous complaints about roadside trash and that he is bringing the matter to Road Superintendent Jeff Long’s attention so action can be taken.

Since taking office in January, Whitfield said he has emphasized cleaning up garbage-strewn roads, something which the previous administration had not considered a high-priority item. With about 684 road miles in the county — double that considering both sides need trash pickup — Walker County has 1,368 miles that need regular cleaning.

“What we are looking to do is hire a second person that would work part-time and expand that to six days a week,” he said. “That would give us 60-hours a week of trash pickup.”

Adopt-a-Highway

Whitfield said the county is organizing a program to get community involvement in Adopt-aHighway, and that would include interested school groups needing public service hours.

The plan would be for the county to gather the data of how much trash is collected by weight and be able to keep a running total for the year to indicate how many pounds of trash has been removed from the roadways and try to engage the community to get involved in the process, Whitfield said.

There will always be a need for the trash pickup and citizens need to take more pride in the community, Whitfield said.

Asked what the community can do to help, Whitfield said, “We need more awareness of how devastating it is to our environment and the appearance of our community that people are pouring trash out. I think if people see that we are making an effort to clean it up and people have more of awareness, I think less people will throw trash out if they see that no one else is. ... We need everybody on board in our community to help keep our natural beauty and not destroy the appearance of Walker County by littering up the sides of the road.”