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| 8-28-07 Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well. It’s hard to believe that it’s already time for the Honey Festival. Time does indeed fly. Speaking of the Honey Festival, I want everyone to have a great time but I also want each person to think about litter also. According to Keep America Beautiful, special event venues are one of the main places people litter. These events attract a lot of people and unfortunately many of them litter. As you walk around the festival, just take a look at the streets and sidewalks. You can see silly string, cigarette butts, food plates, food wrappers, cups, wads of used chewing tobacco, paper and plastic bags, etc. Sounds nasty, doesn’t it? Well, it is! One of the first steps for someone to stop being a litterbug is for them to open their eyes and actually “see” the litter. I’m asking everyone to look down and around as you walk through the festival this year. Do you like what you see? How do you want visitors to think of us? Do you want to take this stuff back home with you on the bottom of your shoes? The thing about litter is that no matter where it starts, it moves. Wind picks up litter and carries it to different places. Keep America Beautiful says that one study showed 18% of all litter eventually makes its way into our streams and waterways. It then becomes water pollution! What can you do to help? Be an example to your friends, family, and co-workers. Use available trash cans. Keep a small bag in your car for trash. Throw it in a trash can when you get gas and get another bag. Put your cigarette butts in a disposable ashtray or empty pop can or bottle. Even mention what you are doing to those around you. Help spread the word! I also want to take a moment to spotlight Scott Francis. Scott recently picked up litter from Canoe Road . Scott did a great job picking up the roadside in that area. If you see Scott out and about, give him a huge “Thank You”! 6-18-07 Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well. Our enforcement program is still going strong. I’ve been out and about writing notices of violation to those still not signed up on garbage service. I recently visited the Canoe/Whick-Lick/Bowling Rd. area of the county and wrote several violations. If I haven’t been to your neighborhood yet, I will be there soon. If you haven’t already done so, you need to call Waste Connections at 666-5912 and sign up for the mandatory garbage service. If you call in by telephone, please be sure to get your account number and put it on your check or money order to ensure you get proper credit for your payment. If you don’t like doing business by telephone, you can stop by the Waste Connections Transfer Station located at 436 Hwy 1812 North. This is located directly behind the Breathitt County Maintenance Garage. They are now set up to take your payments and sign you up for new garbage service. William Deaton is the operator and he’ll be more than glad to help you out. While I’m talking about the transfer station, I want to remind everyone that if you have large bulky items, construction debris, furniture, or other similar items, you can bring those to the transfer station for proper disposal. There is a fee that depends on how much stuff you bring but I can guarantee that the fee is a lot less than the fine you will receive if you are caught illegally dumping! I know that most people don’t like being made to do something, but the mandatory garbage pickup is necessary for the health and well being of everyone in this county and even this planet. When you illegally dump material over a hill or throw garbage out of your car window much of it ends up in our water system. Much of the litter blows around and ends up in our creeks and streams. Material from illegal dumps breaks down and contaminates the ground water with all sorts of nasty chemicals. Did you know that fluorescent light bulbs, computers, TV’s, and many other home electronics contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and many other toxic chemicals? Most citizens in our county still use well water. Where does the water in your well come from? This Earth doesn’t get new fresh water every time it rains. There is only so much water on this planet and it is constantly being reused over and over again! Water contamination is a problem that affects every living being! Even if you buy drinking water you probably still cook, brush your teeth, and take a bath in your well water. Now think about what might be in there. Environmental laws were created to help people. It would be different if you were only hurting yourself by dumping and littering, but you are hurting everyone else also! Please keep this in mind the next time you think about throwing that bag of garbage over a hill or that cup, cigarette, or fast food bag out of your vehicle. Now with that said, I want to say that I recently went on a short canoe trip with several citizens and friends of Breathitt County . The purpose of our trip was to clean as much trash as we could out of the river from Douthitt Park to the cut through at Sy-Bend. We ended up getting a very full pickup load of trash along the way, but overall the river was as clean as it’s been in a long time. This tells me that the mandatory garbage laws are working, not just in this county, but in the counties next to us also. Friends, we can clean up our mess but it’s going to take awhile. It’s also going to take all of us working together! Remember, we’re all in this world together. Please do your part in taking care of it. 6-05-07 Hello friends! I’d like to let everyone know that our enforcement of the garbage ordinance is going along fairly well. Most of the people who receive notice of violations go ahead and sign up for the mandatory garbage service without being taken to court, but unfortunately I have had to file criminal complaints against some of them. As a matter of fact, I just filed three complaints today. We are also going after the people who signed up long enough to get out of trouble but then quit paying. Waste Connections just sent me a list containing names and addresses of 693 people who are currently suspended for non payment or in collections. I hope to have this list published in the newspapers soon. I’m in the process of removing names of the deceased or people who have moved out of the county. Once I get the remainder, we will publish the list in the papers. If you haven’t already signed up, you need to call Waste Connections at 666-5912 or (toll free) 866-428-4208. If I haven’t been around to your neighborhood yet, I will be there soon. I want to remind everyone that the garbage service is mandatory and legal action will be brought against you if you fail to sign up for the service. The service costs $12.92 per month, which is one of the lowest rates in the region. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 666-3818. In other news, I’d like to let everyone know that a group of citizens will be doing a river cleanup on Wednesday, June 13th starting at 12 noon. We will be starting at Douthitt Park and cleaning as far as time permits. If you’d like to help with this, please give me a call. Also, you can’t clean a river without getting wet, so please wear something appropriate. I would also recommend wearing an old pair of shoes to wade in. It would be nice if the river was clean enough to go barefoot, but unfortunately we have to face reality. Even though it is hard work, I think everyone will have a great time. I hope to see you there. Until next time, remember, we’re all in this world together. Please do your part in taking care of it. 4-23-07 Hello friends! I’d like to report that the drop off event for the PRIDE Spring Cleanup went well. I don’t have all the totals in yet but my preliminary figures look like we had around 175 tons of trash and around 75 tons of metal. I’m going to guess that we also had around 3,000 tires. We had originally planned on not taking tires because of the great expense of getting rid of them but we made some last minute changes to accept them. While our trash intake was about the same as our past Spring Cleanups our metal intake was about half of what we usually get. Overall, I was very pleased with the turnout. I also got to speak with several people who were helping neighbors by hauling trash off for others in their communities. I also had the pleasure of speaking with Edwin Caudill of Canoe Rd. Edwin brought in a couple truckloads of trash that he picked up from the roadsides as he walks. It was brought to my attention that he does this quite often. I know a lot of people get out and pick up cans from the roadsides. This helps get rid of trash and can also help you make a little extra money. Edwin goes the extra mile and picks up everything, not just the cans, as he goes along! Thank you, Edwin! You are an asset to your community! Friends, this is what it’s all about. We must all be responsible for taking care of our environment. Speaking of personal responsibility, I want to tell you about a fine lady I recently became acquainted with. Bessie Watts from Leatherwood recently came to my office to learn more about PRIDE. I sent her out of my office with a vest, a couple of rolls of trash bags, and volunteer forms. She told me she was going to do her part by cleaning up roadsides along Leatherwood. Well, I received a call the very next day to come and pick up the trash bags she collected. I was expecting just a few, but when I got there Bessie and a few of her friends had picked up three pickup truck loads! I was really pleased to see the excitement and enthusiasm that this lady and her friends have, and I also want to mention that most of them are senior citizens. Wow! I went back the next day and Bessie was out recruiting more volunteers from her community. Bessie, I want to thank you for your help, and I’m so pleased to have you on board with PRIDE. The Leatherwood/River Caney area is where we just finished cleaning the huge dump on Fishtrap Mountain . The county spent $64,000 cleaning that mess and we intend to keep it clean. The dump is now gone, Bessie and her friends are helping get rid of the roadside litter, and I have been in that area writing up the people who are not currently signed up on the garbage service. With all of us working as a team, I have no doubt that this will be one clean community! Friends, we can do this in your community! If you would like more information about doing a community cleanup, please call me at 666-3818. I will be more than happy to help you get things started. I want to remind everyone that PRIDE stands for Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment. That pretty much sums it up. This is our world, we live here, and we must all do our part to take care of it. Thank you Bessie, Edwin, and all the other volunteers who care so much for our environment. The world is truly a better place because of you! 1-07-07 Hello friends! I hope everyone had a great holiday season! The old year has come and gone and I want to reflect on some of the solid waste statistics from 2006. I’m going to start off with litter abatement, which means to lessen our litter. Last year, volunteers and our litter crew picked up 319 miles of roadways in Breathitt Co. They picked up a total of 6,358 bags of trash. That is an average of about 20 bags of trash per mile of roadway! That does not include the cleaning of any of our dumps, just what has been thrown out along the roads. I really have a problem with our county having that much litter. I mean that it shouldn’t even be a problem. I understand that every now and then something might blow out of the back of a truck, and I have even had the wind catch a piece of paper and it’s blown out of my car window before I could catch it, but 20 bags of trash a mile is not the random piece of paper! Most of what is picked up is fast food bags, wrappers, cups, pop bottles, chip bags, beer bottles, and similar items. If only the litterbugs would just keep a small bag in their vehicles and put the trash in it, instead of carelessly tossing it out the window. The solution to our litter problem can be that simple. Just ask for a bag when you stop for pop and chips and when you’re done with your snacks, stick the trash in the bag. When you stop again, throw that bag away and get another one! I know many of you readers probably already do that, but hopefully we’ll pick up a few more people each time I write about it. Also, you can encourage your friends and family to do the same. If you see anyone littering, please call me at 666-3818 and tell me their license plate number, along with the date and time of the offence. I also want to mention the dumps we’ve cleaned up in 2006. We cleaned a large one at Wolfcoal, two in Barwick, two in Decoy, one on Hwy 542, one on Rock Lick Rd. , and one on Lower Twin Rd. The last dump on Town Hill Rd. was also finished last spring. We are really trying to make Breathitt Co. dump free and I truly feel that this is an achievable goal. Now, let’s talk about 2007. We are going to continue cleaning as many dumps as possible. We will continue to apply for PRIDE and state grants to help offset the financial burden. Cleaning dumps is expensive and our county needs all the help we can get. I am going to be going door to door again checking to see who is not on the mandatory garbage service. If you are not, you will be given a notice of violation and possibly a citation! If you need to sign up for garbage service you need to call Waste Connections at 866-428-4208. This IS a toll free number. They will take your information over the phone and send you a bill. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home to sign up. Speaking of Waste Connections, they are the new garbage service that has taken over Waste Management in this area. Everything is basically the same as when Waste Management was here, except this company deals with the more rural markets such as Breathitt County . I have personally called the call center, which is now located in Eastern Kentucky instead of Birmingham Alabama , and I found the phone representative to be very courteous and helpful. Another aspect of Waste Connections that I think will be a real help with billing problems, is that when you call to sign up, they will send you a bill instead of just giving you an address to mail your first payment. I feel this will cut down on many cases of lost money orders, incorrectly posted accounts, and other billing problems. You will still have the same people picking up your trash but the trucks and uniforms might have a different look to them. I really feel good about this new company and if anyone has any questions about the transition, please don’t hesitate to call me. I hope 2007 brings everyone happiness, prosperity, and a cleaner Breathitt Co. ‘Till next time, thanks for reading! 11-09-06 Hello friends! Our annual PRIDE Fall Cleanup has come and gone. I feel that it went really well. Traffic into the cleanup was fairly steady but overall we received less trash than we have in the past. I can’t help but wonder if the reason is because we have made a huge dent in the amount of trash out there. I certainly hope so. In my opinion, this just goes to show the huge success that PRIDE has been. They have certainly helped Breathitt County tremendously over the past 9 years, and I can personally attest for the past two of them. For example, from mid-August to the end of September, we were able to remove five illegal dumps through PRIDE funds. These dumps were located at Rock Lick Rd, Lower Twin Rd, Hwy 542, Hwy 1812-Decoy, and Cole Cemetery Rd. Where once were five eyesores is now five beautiful, clean areas of our county. I even had a comment that the area at Rock Lick would make a nice roadside park, and it would! I would like to see each community have a small park where an old dump used to be. Wouldn’t that be something to be proud of? Hopefully in the future, we can make that a reality. I believe anything is possible with a little determination and a lot of elbow grease! A little money doesn’t hurt, either. I also want to remind everyone that cleaning our county is a work in progress. We are making huge strides in the right direction, but we also need to continue working very hard towards our goals. I’m asking every citizen to help us by keeping a small litterbag in your vehicle. When you get gas for your car, throw that bag away and get another one. It can be that easy! For pictures of our latest cleanups, information about litter, and to see what’s happening in solid waste in our county, please visit our website at www.whocleansbreathitt.us 9-29-07 Hello friends! I want to once again remind everyone that our PRIDE Fall Cleanup will be held from October 11th to Oct. 14th. We will be open each day from 8 am until 8 pm. Hopefully those hours will better help the citizens that don’t get off work until later in the afternoon. I had announced that we would be open until 6 pm, but after much consideration, we have decided to stay open a full 12 hours per day. We are accepting appliances, scrap metal, household garbage, furniture, and other assorted junk. We will be accepting tires on a limited basis. You can bring up to five tires with a load of trash, but please, no tire only loads. We cannot accept any brush, tree trimmings, or large construction debris. If you have any questions about the cleanup, please give me a call at 666-3818. I’m also looking for volunteers to do roadside litter cleanups in their communities. October is Roadside PRIDE month, which is a friendly competition between cities and counties of similar size. We compete to see who can pick up the most litter and road miles. So far we haven’t won, but I have great confidence that we soon will. Each year we keep gaining more and more volunteers, and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and every person who has helped make this county a clean and beautiful place to live. As most of you have probably heard, we have cleaned up the dump on top of Town Hill Rd a few months ago. Well, a few individuals weren’t happy that the area is clean so they had to come and dump some more trash up there. The first person or persons thought they would be sneaky and dump their trash right next to the cemetery on the very top of the hill. There was an old chair, a pickup load of tires, and bags of wrapping paper and cups from a birthday party for a small child named “Gabe”. I really wish Gabe’s parents had just called me for help instead of dumping their trash next to this cemetery. The second time, they just decided to throw an old stove and bag of accessories right over the hill where we had just cleaned! I still can’t understand the ignorance of their actions. For one thing, there are several people buried at this cemetery and I know some of the family members who visit the graves quite often. These people were so disrespectful of the cemetery that they dumped their trash within a few feet of the graves! And I can’t understand why someone would want to start dumping where a place was just cleaned. I can understand the fact that trash attracts more trash, but I wonder what goes through the mind of someone who dumps/litters in a clean area. Anyway, my litter crew and I spent several hours cleaning up the mess, and all is well again. I also want to take a moment to thank my litter crew. They do a really great job picking up litter and trash along our roads. They often go above and beyond the call of duty. These men show a real sense of pride in their work, and I am very pleased to have them on my team. Thanks Ronnie Campbell, Fitch Campbell, and Christopher Stamper! Keep up the great work! Photo #1 Photo #2 9-12-06 Hello friends! I have a few announcements to make. The month of October is Roadside PRIDE month. Roadside PRIDE is a friendly competition between counties and cities of similar size to see who can pick up the most trash and road miles. The competition aspect of this is not so important as the results. Over the entire PRIDE region last year there were 3,164 miles of roads cleaned, over 38,990 bags of trash picked up, and over 12,000 volunteers. Breathitt Co. had 204 volunteers that helped by picking up 504 miles of roads and 1,220 bags of trash! Now that is really something to be proud of! I’m asking everybody who is able to give me a call and let’s plan a cleanup for your area. We need all the help we can get. I have set the date for the PRIDE Fall Cleanup. It will be held from October 11th-14th from 8am until 6pm. That is a Wednesday through Saturday. We will be taking the usual such as appliances, furniture, scrap metal, and junk in general. We will be taking tires on a limited basis. Each load of trash or scrap is limited to 5 tires maximum. We will not accept any tire only loads! We also will not take any brush, tree trimmings, or large construction debris. If you have any questions about what is acceptable, please give me a call at 666-3818. Last but certainly not least, we are in the process of cleaning five small dumps around the county. The illegal dump at Rock Lick is currently being cleaned right now then illegal dumps at Lower Twin Rd , Hwy 542, Cole Cemetery , and Hwy 1098 at Decoy will soon be history. We are working very hard to make Breathitt Co. completely dump free and I do believe that is a very achievable goal! As always, I appreciate everyone’s help in cleaning our beautiful county. Please don’t forget to give me a call and help out with Roadside PRIDE in October. Together, we can make a difference! 8-7-06 Hello friends! I’m pleased to announce that another major dump has been eliminated from our beautiful county! The last Town Hill dump is now history. This is a very significant milestone. Town Hill was probably one of the oldest dumps around. I have always heard that years ago, it began as the old city dump. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that, but I can see it as a good possibility. It’s the closest thing we had to a landfill. When I was younger and first moved to Breathitt Co., I used to think it was a landfill! I can remember seeing many people throwing their garbage over the side of the mountain. They didn’t even try to hide back then! It was just one of those things that was accepted. I used to ride the school bus past the dump every day. I remember once someone disposed of a dead hog on Town Hill. We were really lucky to get the free biology lesson. Not only did all of us kids on the bus get to watch the amazing process of decay, but we had to smell it twice a day for two weeks. Gross! That was an experience that I’ve remembered after all these years. Fortunately, we live and learn. Over the past three years, PRIDE has spent around $208,000 in cleaning the Town Hill dumps. Over 5,000 tons of trash, 115 tons of old appliances, and around 500 tires have been removed from the dumps on Town Hill Rd! We are really fortunate to have such a great organization in Eastern Kentucky. PRIDE has also provided us the funds to clean another huge dump on top of Fishtrap Mountain. That is the largest remaining dump in Breathitt County. We will also continue to use PRIDE funds and other resources from the state illegal dump grant program to clean the rest of our smaller dumps. I really want to see us dump free within the next 3-4 years, and I think it is a very real possibility. To find out more information, please check out PRIDE’s website at www.kypride.org, the state’s site is www.waste.ky.gov, and our local cleanup website is www.whocleansbreathitt.us. Let’s all do our part for a better environment! Photo#1 Photo#2 Photo#3 Cleanin’ With Calvin Hello friends! I recently went on the canoe trip that the Co. Extension Service hosts each year from Douthitt Park to the Martha Lane Collins Bridge at Mt. Carmel. I can remember the very first canoe trip that was held, about 7 years ago. To get down to the river, we had to weed eat a path from the old city park, now the Kiwanis Park, to the river and then climb up a muddy bank on our way out at Mt. Carmel. While going down the river that first year, there was still plenty of plastic and other junk hanging from the trees. The bottom of the river had so many tires that the canoes dragged many of them, and a couple of places were so bad we had to get out and pull our canoes across them. All along the banks were assorted appliances from stoves and refrigerators to water heaters, and although I don’t remember seeing one, I’m sure there was probably a kitchen sink or two along the way. There has been a lot of positive change to our county and river since then. Now we just walk down the boat ramp at Douthitt Park, and walk up another at the Roy Spencer Boat Ramp! There was very little trash in the trees this year, however, I did see an old pool liner that I remember being there last year. There are very, very few appliances along the banks now, and most of the tires have been removed from the river through the various river sweeps that have been held along the years. I was so pleased to notice the progress our county has made. The trip was really enjoyable. There was one place, though, where someone must have thought was just too pretty. As we floated past a spot on Wolverine Rd, I noticed someone couldn’t find a good way of getting rid of their trash, so they just threw it over the hill and let it roll into the otherwise clean river. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they probably thought the trash would magically ‘go away’ once it went over the bank. Now for my educational lesson of the week. The trash doesn’t just ‘go away’, it goes ‘somewhere else’. That particular day, somewhere else meant scattered down the river for about a mile or so. I’m sure that everyone that saw this mess from their canoes had the highest regard for the person responsible. Anyway, I took a couple of workers and a backhoe back to Wolverine and we cleaned this mess, and a couple of others, up. I want to take this opportunity to ask everyone that if you have something you need help getting rid of, even if it’s just bags of trash, please conta ct me. I will be more than happy to help you find a legal way to dispose of your waste. We do have a beautiful county and I need everyone’s help in keeping it beautiful. I also want to remind everyone that litter thrown out along our roads often ends up in our streams. Please keep a small bag in your car for litter. You can change it out each time you stop for gas. For more information about litter and solid waste issues in our county, please check out our website at www.whocleansbreathitt.us As always, thanks for reading! Photo #1 Photo #2 Photo#3 Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 6-22-06 Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well. For the past few weeks we have been cleaning more dumps in our county. We recently cleaned two dumps at Barwick and one at Wolfcoal. One of the dumps at Barwick was in the wooded area next to the low water bridge and the other was right on the river bank, going over the hill and into the river. That one was a tough one to clean. We started cleaning it near the end of March and we got all we could, but there was a lot of stuff buried. We recently went back, taking our excavator along with us. This time, we managed to get all the buried stuff and some of the stuff that we couldn’t get to in the river. It really looks great now that we are done and I sincerely hope it stays that way. We really worked hard to get these dumps cleaned up. We even had a man wade out into the river and wrap chains around the old appliances so we could pull them out with a backhoe. Like the old saying goes, “ya gotta do what ya gotta do”! Well, we did it! I really appreciate the dedicated workers that we have here at the county. The road crew has really been a tremendous help in getting our dumps cleaned up. In order to clean the dump at Wolfcoal, which was scattered over a large area of steep hillside, we had to take the bulldozer and excavator in and build roads so that we could get to the trash. After the roads were built, the excavator was used to reach much of the scattered trash and rake it down the hill and then the bulldozer pushed it up in piles to be loaded into the dump trucks. The little stuff had to be picked up by hand. Fortunately, we are getting our county in pretty good shape. Most of our large dumps have now been cleaned up and we are working hard to clean all of our smaller ones. There are still a few large dumps left, but I’ve applied for grants to help us get rid of them. Hopefully we’ll be approved for them. Speaking of grants, we have been approved for a PRIDE SuperGrant to clean the Fishtrap Mountain illegal dump. On June 9th, I took several contractors out to the site and showed them what we expected them to clean. We will be opening their sealed bids at the next fiscal court meeting and choosing the best bid to clean this whole area. I will keep everyone posted on our progress with this one. As far as I know, the Fishtrap dump is the largest remaining dump in our county. Thanks to the folks at PRIDE, that dump will soon be history. Before I go, I just want to remind everyone that illegal dumping is much worse than just being an eyesore. Illegal dumps are terrible sources of pollution, and both health and physical hazards to wildlife and humans. Illegal dumps contain many hazardous chemicals that leak out of items, or leach into the ground as trash decays. For example, TV’s and computer monitors can contain from 3 to 6 pounds of lead and small amounts of mercury. Batteries also contain hazardous material, and even fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury, cadmium, and lead, which can cause damage to your brain, liver, and kidneys. Most household cleaners, paints, insecticides, and automotive products contain oils, and other hazardous chemicals. These chemicals eventually end up in the watershed and streams, polluting our drinking water. Also, animals can get cut from sharp edges of items contained in the dump such as sharp metal, broken glass, etc. The costs from illegal dumping are far greater than just the money it takes to clean them up. Our health is at risk! If you see an illegal dumper, or litterbug, please write down as much information as you can, especially license plate numbers, and report them to Calvin Saum at 666-3818. I don’t need your name, just the information you have. Our county is looking much better but I still need everyone’s help. Please don’t litter! For more information, please check out our website at www.whocleansbreathitt.us Barwick Clean Up Wolfcoal Clean UP Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) Hello friends! The PRIDE Spring Cleanup is pretty much over and I am extremely pleased. Not so much pleased that it’s over, although I admit I am pretty tired, but mostly pleased because this has been the biggest turnout since I have been affiliated with PRIDE and the Solid Waste Coordinator position. We had more groups and more citizens volunteer to pick up roadside litter this year than ever before, and our turnout at the county wide drop off lot was much bigger than any I’ve seen. I don’t have totals yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll let everyone know how we did. Actually this is the 1st day I’ve been able to catch up on office duties in quite awhile. I just want to give a huge “THANKS” to everyone who has helped out this year! You have shown what can be done when we all work together. Speaking of working together, the Jackson Church of Christ worked together on Saturday, April 22nd, and cleaned Hwy 30 West from Belcher Fork Rd to the bridge by McDonalds. They had a really great turnout and everyone seemed to have fun while working hard. I’ve already been told that they are looking forward to helping out again this fall! Folks, as you drive along our roads, please think before you throw something out of your car window. Much of our roadside litter pickup is done by these volunteers. These people, including children, get out and pick up the pop bottles, cans, and fast food bags that are thrown from car windows. They work hard to make our county look better, and they do it without any pay except knowing that they helped make a difference in the world. Help us spread the word! Tell your friends and family to keep a small plastic bag in their car for litter. Change it out when stopping for gas. Together, we can make a difference in our environment! Photo #1 Photo #2 Photo #3 Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) Hello friends! I’m happy to report that the PRIDE cleanup held by the Clayhole Grace Brethren Church was a success. Nine volunteers picked up 87 bags of trash along a 4.5 mile stretch of Hwy 476. This was another really great cleanup, and I sincerely thank all the volunteers who donated their Saturday morning for this worthy cause. The next scheduled PRIDE cleanup will be on Morris Fork, Saturday, April 8th at 10 am. We are going to start near the head of Morris Fork and clean all they way to Hwy 28. For more information on this event, contact Crystal Deaton at 666-3800 x227. The following Saturday, April 15th, Freeman Fork is going to have their cleanup starting at 10 am. We hope to make it all the way from the head of Freeman Fork to Hwy 28. For information on this cleanup, you can call Shauna Turner at 398-2036. On Saturday, April 22nd, The Jackson Church of Christ will be holding their cleanup from the intersection of Chick Little Rd and Hwy 30 West, to the bridge by McDonalds. For more information on this cleanup, contact Pastor Virgil McIntosh at 666-5628. I want to sincerely thank all these groups for their efforts in helping make Breathitt County a cleaner, more beautiful place to live. I have some more groups that are in the planning stages of their cleanups, and as soon as specific dates and times are set, I’ll pass that information along. In the meantime, please check out our website at www.whocleansbreathitt.us for the most up-to-date information. You might also want to look at www.kypride.org, the official website for PRIDE. Also, I want to let everyone know that I’m currently collecting old used cell phones, ink cartridges from computer printers, and toner cartridges from laser printers. These items are being sent off for recycling by the Helping Hands Christian Resources group. If you have any of these items, please bring them to me at the county garage, and I will make sure that they are recycled. It’s not much as far as recycling goes, but it’s a start. Last, but certainly not least, I want to remind everyone to remember the garbage men when you are filling up your garbage bags. These men have a very tough job, and I rarely hear them complain, but sometimes they come across garbage bags that weigh 60-70 pounds. Not only are these bags hard to lift, but they often tear and scatter loose trash around. The garbage men are not responsible for loose trash from torn bags. If you’ve got a heavy garbage bag, consider splitting the trash into two smaller and lighter bags, or at least double bag it so it won’t tear. Until next week, remember, there’s only one world and we’re all in it together. Please don’t litter! Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) Hello friends! On Saturday, April 8th, Morris Fork residents had their 1st PRIDE Spring Cleanup and it was a huge success. I want to thank Crystal Deaton for helping organize this event. Despite the cold weather and the rain, there were a total of 36 volunteers who helped out with this cleanup. We were able to clean the roadsides of the entire hollow. Unfortunately the water was too high in the creeks to get along the banks, but the residents are already planning another cleanup soon, so we can go back and give the stream a good cleaning. We had some really hard working volunteers, and I could see the frustration with many of them because they just couldn’t make it across the creek to get the garbage on the other side. It is frustrating to have one side of the hollow looking pristine, and yet you just have to stand there and look at trash on the other side knowing you can’t get over there to get it. I look forward to going back to Morris Fork to help with the cleaning of the creek. I guess I’m still a big kid at heart and I don’t need much of an excuse to go play in the creek! Members of the Clayhole Grace Brethren Church went back out along Hwy 476, on April 10th, to finish picking up a few areas that they didn’t get during their cleanup. I also want to thank these folks for their dedication. They have helped out with each PRIDE cleanup and I sincerely appreciate their help. While I’m talking about the PRIDE cleanups, I just want to take a minute to sincerely thank all of the volunteers. Volunteers are a special breed of people. They aren’t working for money, or credit, or anything of financial value. They are working for the betterment of our environment, and the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing their part to make the world a better place to live. These people give up several hours of their time to help others. On these weekends, they could be at home watching T.V., gardening, working on a hobby, or maybe even just taking a nap. Instead, these people give up their personal time to get out and try to make a difference in the world, and they are making a big difference! For example, many areas where the volunteers work have never been picked up by the state, or even the county. As a matter of fact, the state does not pick up most of our roads, volunteers do! Now, these areas are staying cleaner and looking better. Each time we pick up an area, there is beginning to be less and less trash. I know that many of these areas are littered up again, but you can still tell a difference. We have to remember that it took a long time for this region to get this bad, and it will take a long time to make it better, but it can be done. It IS being done! How many of you remember our region 10-15 years ago when diapers hung from nearly every tree along the river bank? Fortunately, this type of tree is nearly extinct now! Remember, there’s only one world and we’re all in it together. Please do your part by not littering. Carry a small bag in your car and use it to put your trash in. Change it out when you stop for gas. Yes, it can be that simple! Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) Hello friends! It’s been awhile since I last wrote, but I’m getting spring fever and I’m anxious to get started with my weekly articles again. Speaking of spring fever, it’s time for our annual PRIDE Spring Cleanup. April 19th-22nd are the dates for our drop-off lot below Wal-Mart to be open. The lot will be open from 8am until 6pm. You must bring your items to this lot. Please do not pile trash beside of the road. Not only does this create a huge mess, but you could be fined for littering. The items you can bring to the lot include furniture, appliances, metal, household garbage, etc. I will also accept car batteries, but please keep them separated from the other trash. They must be recycled; therefore they cannot go in the dumpsters. We cannot accept tires, TV’s, computer monitors, large amounts of construction debris & wood, oil, antifreeze, and other liquids. If you need to get rid of a TV or computer monitor, you may take those items to the Waste Management transfer station located behind the county maintenance garage on Hwy 1812N. They are allowed to accept one TV or computer monitor from a household, but only one! If you have questions about any other item, please call me at 666-3818. I am also looking for volunteers to help clean a roadside or stream in their communities. So far, Freeman Fork and Morris Fork citizens are going to hold cleanups in their communities. The Morris Fork cleanup is scheduled for April 8th at 10am. This is a first cleanup for this community and I’m sure they will enjoy themselves. If you would like to help with this cleanup, call Crystal Deaton at 666-3800 x227, and she’ll be glad to sign you up. Freeman Fork’s cleanup is scheduled for April 15th at 10am. This will be their third time, with the last two being really successful. If you would like to help with the Freeman Fork event, contact Shauna Turner at 398-2036. Initially, most people think of these cleanups as just a bunch of hard work. Often there is hard work involved, but everyone has such a good time, you don’t mind it. I was surprised when I helped with my first cleanup on Freeman Fork. I would have never dreamed that hard work could be so much fun! Even all the young people enjoyed themselves. And they were really proud of what they accomplished. Afterwards, everyone gathered at Anthony and Tina Helton’s house and we had a great cookout! I look forward to this again. I’m expecting to hear back from several of our church groups that will possibly have a cleanup, and as soon as I do, I’ll pass the information along. If you want to have a cleanup in your community, please call me and I’ll be glad to help you organize one. I also want to tell everyone about our new website. The address is www.whocleansbreathitt.us. Please take a few minutes to check it out. You can find out about upcoming events, solid waste news, litter abatement, and useful links. The website is still under construction, so if you don’t see something you are looking for, please let me know so that I can add it in. I appreciate your feedback. Please call me at 666-3818 or email me at bcswc@setel.com. Remember, there is only one world and we’re all in it together. Please don’t litter! Together, we can make a difference! 10-12-05 Hello friends! This week I want to let everyone know about some of the upcoming events that will be taking place around the county, and the progress we are making in our fight against litter and illegal dumping. First, I want to remind everyone that October is Roadside PRIDE Month. Roadside PRIDE is a friendly competition between cities and counties of similar population to see who can pick up the most roadside litter and have the most volunteers. If you would like to help with a roadside cleanup, please call 666-3818 and I’ll be glad to help you plan a litter pickup event of your own or let you help one of our church or other community groups. Also, our Annual Fall Cleanup will be from Oct. 19th through Oct. 22nd. The drop off lot below Wal-Mart will be open during those dates from 8am to 6pm. The days are Wednesday through Saturday. You MUST bring your junk to the lot. Please do NOT pile trash beside of the roads. Piling junk beside the road is considered criminal littering and if you do so, you can be issued a citation. The county stopped this practice several years ago, yet every cleanup we encounter several large piles along various roadsides in the county. Let’s do better this time. Now that the leaves are falling and greenery is dying out, we are concentrating our efforts on illegal dump cleanups. We have begun cleaning the illegal dump on Firetrail Rd. We have much of it already finished, but we still have to take a bulldozer up there to push a lot of the trash up the hill where we can reach and load it with a backhoe or excavator. We are also getting ready to bid out the job of cleaning the illegal dump on top of Town Hill Rd. Hopefully by the end of the year it will be history. If funds allow, we also plan on cleaning the Little’s Creek dump along with several other small dumps around the county. My goal is to make Breathitt Co. dump free. We are well on our way to achieving this goal, and it is very possible. What a wonderful day it will be when we finish cleaning our last dump. Hopefully this won’t be too far in the future. I also want to tell everyone how our litter crew is doing. They are working every day walking our roadsides and picking up litter. So far, they are averaging about 30 bags of trash per mile. This is a tremendous amount of litter! The roads that they have cleaned so far are Markham Fork Rd, Curt Rd, Watts Loop Rd, Leatherwood Rd, Hwy 205, and they are currently working their way across Hwy 1812 from Pizza Hut to the construction area near 205. Even though this crew is working hard every day, I still need your help! I’m asking everyone to PLEASE don’t throw trash out of your car windows. We have enough litter right now to keep us busy for quite awhile without adding more. If you have time, you should drive one of these roads and look how much better it looks nearly litter free. I say “nearly litter free” because there has been some trash thrown out since we picked up, which takes a truly ignorant person to do so. I apologize if I sometimes sound a little callous, but the truth is the truth! Despite some people’s ignorance, I am still amazed at the difference their efforts are making. You will have no problem knowing where they left off at the end of the day. It’s almost like drawing a line between clean and dirty. Our litter crew consists of Kyle Little, Christopher Stamper, Patrick Smith, Michael Hernandez, Ronnie Campbell, and Fitch Campbell. Be sure and thank them for their hard work when you see any of these men. They are doing a great job! I want to finish by saying “Thanks” to Judge Warrix and the Fiscal Court for all their support in making Breathitt Co. a cleaner place to live. I also want to thank Mackie Miller and the road crew for all of the extra help I get from them. They have helped me clean up several dumps and dirty areas of the county, along with helping during our spring and fall cleanups. And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank you, my readers, for your interest in our environment. Together, we are making a difference in our county! Photos Here Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 8-5-05 Hello friends! In my last article, I talked about our litter problem and some things that can be done to help. This week I want to talk a little more about litter and our litter abatement program. Litter abatement means getting rid of, or lessening, our litter. In the past, I have asked all of you to do what you can to help get rid of litter. Now I’m going to tell you about what I’m doing to help. I have been taking community service and program workers to different areas of our county and we have been cleaning roadsides and wide spots along the road. With the amount of trash we have, this is a very slow process, but we are doing the best we can. We take rakes, shovels, and sticks with nails in the tip and stick, rake, and shovel up all that we can. I’ve been at this job for nine months now, but I am still at a loss for words about the shape our roadsides are in. The good news is that we have some funds available to help with this litter cleanup. If you know of a church or other non-profit group that would like to earn some money, we can pay $20 per mile to any non-profit group that would like to pick up roadside litter. The county will provide supplies and safety vests, and will pick up the bags of litter left beside the road during your cleanup. Please contact me at 666-3818 for details. In other solid waste news, the dump site at Big Lovely has been finished. The completion of this dump has the Big Lovely/Evanston area of Southfork looking good. This was the third major dump that has been cleaned up in that area, and it really looks nice. I really want everyone to know what an asset PRIDE has been to our county. They have provided the funding and support for nearly all of the dumps that have been cleaned in our county. We were just approved for another $50,000 PRIDE grant, so we will soon be getting rid of more dumps. My goal is to eliminate every dump in Breathitt County! I also want to mention the KY Division of Waste Management local assistance staff in Frankfort, who are also a huge help, and anytime I come across something I can’t handle, I know I can count on them to help me work out a solution or find the answer to a problem. The KY Division of Waste Management helps us with funding for the litter abatement program and some dump removal also. Thanks to all organizations that help our county and its citizens. We appreciate you! The last thing I want to mention this week is our progress in signing people up on the garbage service. Constable John Campbell is going door to door writing citations to those people who are not signed up on the garbage service. I am also filing criminal complaints against those who have ignored past warnings. Several people have now been taken to court, and a few have even had bench warrants issued for failing to appear. The garbage service is mandatory, and it is being enforced. To sign up, please call Waste Management at 666-5912. They will take your information and give you the address to send in your payment. As always, if you have a problem, question, or comment, feel free to call me or come by my office at the county garage. PHOTO 1 PHOTO 2 Cleanin’ With Calvin 6-20-05 Hello friends! This week I want to talk more about litter and what we can do about it. You don’t have to drive very far in our county to see that we have a real problem with litter. I have seen some ditch lines in our county that look like you emptied a garbage can in them. During the PRIDE Spring Cleanup, 200 bags of trash were picked up along a 4 mile stretch of Hwy 476. I know, I can barely believe it, too, but I counted them myself. Most of this litter is pop bottles, beer bottles, fast food containers, and snack wrappers. Why do people litter? According to the “Keep America Beautiful” website, people litter because 1) they feel no sense of ownership. It’s not my place, so why should I care? 2) They feel someone else will pick it up. The state will pick it up, right? 3) Litter is already there. It won’t hurt to throw out a little more, will it? Not all litter is thrown out of car windows. Some of it blows out of the back of trucks, and some of it comes from around dumpsters, garbage cans, your trash bins, and plain old pedestrians. People often throw down trash and cigarette butts at ballgames, in parking lots, and other special events. Just look at the streets during the Honey Festival! What are some of the impacts of littering? It causes property values to go down. Who wants to live amidst a bunch of trash, or what business would want to locate where people are too sorry to pick up after themselves? It can also be dangerous to animals and people, especially broken glass, and the increasing problem of used needles. Also, cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of birds, fish, and other animals that mistake them for food. Forest fires can be started from carelessly tossed cigarettes or cigars. Littering costs local and state governments millions of dollars a year to try and keep it picked up. This also costs you, as a taxpayer! Don’t you think your dollars could be better spent on something besides picking up trash from people too sorry to do it themselves? Litter also ends up blowing into our waterways and streams. This is another major source of water pollution. What can we do about this? To start, you can carry a small litterbag in your vehicle. Personally, I always ask for a bag when I buy snacks and get gas. Car gas! When I’m done with my pop and chips, I put the trash back in the bag and throw it out the next time I buy more gas. Wal-Mart bags work equally well, or you can buy a fancier one that straps across your headrest and hangs on the back of the seat. Use your car ashtray or keep an empty can or bottle to throw your cigarette butts into when you’re finished. Also, make sure your trash bags are tied tight when you take them out. Check your trash bin. Does it have any sharp edges to snag the bags when they are picked up by the garbage men? Is there any loose trash that could blow out of the bin? If you are often having loose trash around your bin, look into buying the plastic trash cans with tight fitting lids. Most problems I’ve seen have come from homemade wooden bins with sharp edges or large openings that animals can get into. If you are a business owner, make sure you have enough garbage cans placed in convenient locations around your business. Have an employee frequently pick up around these cans and your dumpsters. Don’t forget to make sure they are emptied on a regular basis. Also, make sure you have a container for cigarette butts at each entrance to your business. Litter is not a natural occurrence. It comes from people. Only people can prevent it. Each of us can make a difference. Today is a good day to start. If you see anyone throwing litter from a vehicle, please call my office at 666-3818. Make a note with as many details as you can. I need the license plate number, vehicle color and type, what was thrown out, where it was thrown out, was it thrown from driver or passenger side, and what date the littering occurred. I will send that person a letter with facts about littering. This is done as a public education campaign, not a punishment. 5-23-05 Hello friends! This week I’m pleased to say that the second dump up Southfork has been completely cleaned up. This dump was located at the Breathitt Magoffin County line, scattered over a large area of hillside. Keeton’s Excavating, from West Liberty, cleaned this dump, as well as one other in the area. Both locations are now looking great, and I’m extremely pleased to see these dumps gone. Both were visible from the road and were terrible eyesores. Aside from just looking bad, illegal dumps are terrible sources of pollution, and both health and physical hazards to wildlife and humans. Illegal dumps contain many hazardous chemicals that leak out of items, or leach into the ground as trash decays. For example, TV’s and computer monitors can contain from 3 to 6 pounds of lead, and small amounts of mercury. Batteries also contain hazardous material, and even fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury, cadmium, and lead, which can cause damage to your brain, liver, and kidneys. Most household cleaners, paints, insecticides, and automotive products contain oils, and other toxic chemicals. These chemicals eventually end up in the watershed and streams, polluting our drinking water. Also, animals can get cut from sharp edges of items contained in the dump such as sharp metal, broken glass, etc. The costs from illegal dumping are far greater than just the money it takes to clean them up. Our health is at risk! PHOTOS HERE Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 5-10-05 Hello friends! I’m glad to be back this week. I’m starting to get things caught up and hopefully I can get an article to you again on a regular schedule. To fill you in since my last article, the PRIDE Spring Cleanup has come and gone, with great success, and one of the dumps up Southfork has been completely finished, and they are starting to work on the other one. I was very pleased at the success of our Spring Cleanup. We had several groups clean their neighborhoods, and in everyone’s opinion, we had the biggest turnout at the drop off location that we have ever had. I sincerely want to thank everyone who participated in this year’s cleanup. At my last count we had around 100 documented volunteers who participated in scheduled cleanups, and we had many others who helped out by bringing trash to the drop off location. I was very happy to learn that several individuals were going around their neighborhoods and offering to haul bulky items to the drop off location for people who where unable to do so on their own. We have some really great people who live in Breathitt County and I truly enjoy seeing neighbors helping neighbors. If you live next to an elderly or disabled person, show them you care by helping clean the roadside in front of their house, or offer to help them take out their trash. Many elderly hesitate to ask for the help, but I know they really appreciate it. One problem we have that I’ve been getting a lot of complaints about and I’m seeing firsthand is our litter problem. Our roadsides are in better shape since our cleanup, but some of them didn’t get cleaned or were cleaned and now have fresh litter showing up again. To be honest, I really don’t know how to fix this problem. I’ve been thinking of different ways of educating the public, but people really need to take some personal responsibility, also. One thing that I have been doing recently, and encouraging others to do, is when I go to a convenient store and buy something, if I don’t get a bag, I make sure I ask for a bag to put my trash in. I don’t mean I just ask for a bag, I actually say “I need a bag to put my trash in”. I encourage you to do the same. Hopefully, the idea may catch on. In the very near future, I plan on talking to the store managers and encouraging them to teach their employees to ask customers if they need a litter bag. It wouldn’t take but an extra two seconds to ask, and it may actually prevent someone from littering. Just to give you a picture of how bad our litter problem is, let me tell you about Hwy 476. One Saturday during the cleanup, several members of the Clayhole Grace Brethren Church picked up 100 bags of trash from a five mile stretch of roadside. They went back about a week later and picked up another 100 bags of roadside litter. 200 bags of roadside litter from a five mile stretch of road. That is a problem, if I’ve ever seen one, and believe me; I have seen my share of problems! I would estimate that 50-60 bags of that trash was nothing but beer bottles. I just hope they were from the passengers and not the drivers! If anyone has any ideas that might help slow down our roadside litter, please give me a call at 666-3818. I’m always open to comments and suggestions. Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 4-13-05 PHOTOS HERE Hello friends! This week I’m excited to tell you about the PRIDE Spring Cleanup event that was held on Freeman Fork. Being a fairly new solid waste coordinator, I really didn’t know what to expect during this event. I’ve heard they can be really fun, but this was one of those things where you just had to be there. Everything went really great, but I can’t take all of the credit. Shauna & Alisha Turner, my sister-in-law and niece did a lot of the preparation. They went up and down the holler and recruited volunteers to help with this event. Basically, all I did was bring supplies, show up, and have fun. I really do appreciate all of the work everybody put into this event. Anthony Helton, his wife, Tina, and their children started at the head of the holler with a four wheeler and buggy. They rode down the road picking up trash along the way and hauled it in the buggy. We all grouped together at my father-in-law’s house to begin the rest of the journey. We had two four wheelers and trailers, a herd of excited children, and a bunch of us old folks who just tried to keep up. We went along the road and picked up everything we could see. Most of the adults stayed on the road, while most of the kids hit the creek. When we arrived at the mouth of the holler about six hours later, we were tired, wet, and dirty, and I had a pickup truck heaped with trash. We picked up approximately thirty full bags of small trash, three tires, including one tractor tire, an old fender, and one Lazy-Boy recliner. I was wishing the Lazy-Boy was in better shape, because I was ready to use one! After we were done, we all met back at Anthony & Tina’s place and had a great time cooking out. We roasted hot dogs on sticks, had plenty of chips and pop, and while us adults where just glad to sit around, the kids played basketball and other games. Oh how I wish I was young again! I still can’t believe how much trash was picked up. It was way more than I expected, and nobody would ever believe the fun the children had in the process. You can really tell the difference on Freeman Fork. I am so used to seeing trash along the road that it really looks odd, in a good way, with the roadside and creeks as clean as they are. Everyone learned a good lesson about throwing stuff out of car windows and into the creeks and ditches. As you drive along, remember how hard these people worked to make our county better, and hang on to your trash until you get home. This was the first of several cleanups around the county, and I can’t wait until I help with another one. You really get a sense of accomplishment when you look at the difference you helped make. Now I’m going to thank everybody who helped out with this cleanup. If you see any of these people out, please thank them too! Let’s thank… Alisha Turner, Shauna Turner, Sarah Raleigh, Paige Dunn, Jordan Barrett, Tiffany Helton, Cynthia Helton, Josh Helton, Bobby Stamper, Gary Noble, Anthony(Axl) Helton, Tina Helton, Ed Turner, Ella Faye Turner, and Tammy Saum, who all worked way harder than I did! Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 4-7-05 Hello friends. I just want to mention again that the PRIDE Spring Cleanup is getting near. This week I want to concentrate on what you can do as an individual to participate in the PRIDE Spring Cleanup. One thing you can be doing is gathering up all of the old junk that may be lying around your property. If you get everything together in one place, it will be easier to load up and bring to the drop off location on Hwy 15 South below Wal-Mart. This gives you the chance to get rid of things that can’t be put in your weekly garbage. The drop off area will be open April 20th through April 23rd from 8am to 4pm. We will accept most anything except TV’s, computer monitors, and large pieces of lumber and brush. Another thing you can do to help make our county look better is pick up the roadside along your property line, or in front of your house. If you are not physically able to bend over and pick up trash, have a neighbor or a friend fix a nail in the end of an old cane or broom handle and use it to spear the litter. Perhaps you have an elderly neighbor. Take a few extra minutes to clean up in front of their property, too, and show them you care. Another thing that I’m asking is for everyone to take a look at your trash bin. Over time, debris builds up around and in the bottom of your bins or trash cans. Take a few minutes to rake up any loose debris around your trash receptacles, and maybe do some minor repairs, if necessary. Many of you keep trash bins out all the time and I’ve seen some really trashy trash bins in front of otherwise beautiful homes. Your house looks nice, so why don’t you make sure your garbage bin does, too! One last thing, keep a small bag in your vehicle to put trash in. Please don’t throw stuff out of your car windows. The next time you drive somewhere, take a really good look at our roadsides. We can make things better. Let’s start now. Thanks, Calvin L. Saum II Breathitt Co. Solid Waste/PRIDE Coordinator 1137 Main St. Jackson, KY 41339 Office: (606)666-3818 Fax: (606)666-3816 email: bcswc@setel.com Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) 3-21-05 Panbowl Photos Hello friends. This week I’d like to tell you about a cleanup project that some students from Lees College did. The class that did this project is Marilyn Brown’s Modern Social Problems class. Her students decided to tackle the problem of illegal trash and litter. I met with her class on March 18th and told them a little about what I do, and how enormous our solid waste problem is. We then went out to Panbowl Rd. and started picking up litter along the roadside and around the boat ramp-picnic area. We only had about one hour to participate in the project, but we still managed to pick up twenty-two bags of trash. We made a pretty good dent in the area, but there is still plenty more that needs picked up. This would be a good Spring Cleanup Project for any group interested in doing a project together. Easter is coming up, and I know there will be many people who will probably visit the lake for fishing or a picnic. I hope they leave with a good impression of our county. If you are interested in picking up litter in this, or any other area of our county, please let me know. I can help you plan your project, and provide gloves, safety vests, and trash bags. This project shows just how much litter can be picked up in a short period of time. I want to thank the following students and people for helping cleanup along Panbowl; Nicola Allen, Rachel Bessent, Bridget Booth (and her son), SueAnna Cable (and her two daughters), Vanessa Combs, Jason Gabbard, Seth Hollon, Penny Johnson, Priscilla Mullins, Samantha Smith, and Ms. Marilyn Brown. I even managed to fill a bag while there. Sigmon Photos In other news, over the weekend, somebody has dumped some more trash at the newly cleaned dump on Sigmon Rd. I’m really at a loss for words, or at least ones that the news can print. Again, it is all construction material. There is a pile of drywall, a bathtub, some chain link fence, and insulation from large size copper wire. Again, I believe this came from one person, and I know somebody out there must have seen them dumping this stuff. This location is highly visible from Hwy 15. I will try to get it picked up within the next couple of days. All this person would have had to do was bring the stuff to our transfer station behind the county garage. Material can be dumped by the ton or by the yard. It costs about $41 a ton to dispose of material, or about $20 a yard. A full size pickup truck will usually hold about a yard and a half to two yards, depending on how dense you pack it in. If you are a contractor and you frequently have old construction debris, please include a few dollars extra in your bid, and use that to properly dispose of the waste material. Hinkle Contracting below the bridge by McDonalds will be happy to weigh your vehicle, and give you a ticket that you can take to the transfer station so you can get the ton rat |
| Cleanin’ With Calvin (Solid Waste Coordinator) |