Help wanted for local green spaces

♦ Volunteers sought for new Keep Polk Beautiful program

Keep Polk Beautiful needs volunteer help with a new program now underway to ensure that local green spaces enjoyed by all stay pristine and proper.

Executive Director Randy Cook is asking for those who are willing to help with cleanup efforts at a variety of places – like the Pinhoti Trailheads or Seaborn Jones Park as examples – so that when others go to enjoy the trails, parks and other recreation areas in Polk County, they aren’t littered by trash.

The idea is to supplement the efforts undertaken by work being done by municipalities public works departments, or DNR in the case of the J.L. Lester Wildlife Management Area’s entrances, Cook said.

“Hopefully we can take back our green spaces,” he said. “We have a lot of green spaces, and that’s not including the whole of the Silver Comet. That’s just the trail heads, the parks and such.”

Cook’s goal is to get dozens of volunteers to sign up in intervals to provide just a small amount of their time picking up trash around the county with the goal in mind that the less there is to gather up in the green spaces, the more likely the idea of antilitter campaigns will take greater hold throughout the community.

He added that in places like Seaborn Jones Park, the city makes great efforts to maintain the space but that homelessness and visitors leave behind as much as they bring with them to the areas.

“We’re hoping to go above and beyond what the city does here and elsewhere,” Cook said.

Signups are already underway, and he’s got a growing list of people who are willing to help.

Those who also want to participate can contact Cook by calling 678-2461083 to learn more, or by e-mailing him at rcook@ cedartowngeorgia.gov.

Along with volunteer help, donations for Keep Polk Beautiful are also needed and appreciated.