County joins anti-litter fight; event begins today
Published 9:06 am Monday, April 18, 2011
Escambia County Commissioners have put their heads together to offer resources to those who are eager to cleanup the county.
County Commissioner Larry White said efforts to help volunteers in the cleanup have been coordinated by several officials in the county.
“We are joining in the ‘Don’t Drop It On Alabama’ statewide spring cleanup campaign that will be running all this week through Saturday,” White said. “Our respective offices in the county will have trash bags available from the People Against a Littered State organization. We have made arrangements for bags filled with collected litter to be picked up along the county roads following the cleanup. The State has agreed to pick up the bags along State roads in the area.”
County Commission Chairman David Stokes said he had coordinated assistance through Republic Services to arrange for large roll-off dumpsters to be in place for drop off of trash.
“Republic Services has agreed to supply three roll-off containers at no charge to the county help with collection of litter and trash,” Stokes said. “These containers are not for household garbage, tires, electronics or that sort of thing. This is only for trash that has been picked up along the roadways. The containers will be situated at our shop here in Brewton on Pea Ridge Road; the Flomaton Fire Department and our shop in Atmore on Jack Springs Road. They will leave those containers in place through the weekend and pick them up on April 25.”
Commissioner Raymond Wiggins said registration of areas to be cleaned will help keep the cleanup efforts running smoothly from start to finish.
“We really want to encourage people to contact us to let us know where they will be doing cleanup,” Wiggins said. “That will let us know where to send our people to pick up the bags that have been filled with litter. We want to be as effective in this cleanup by covering as many areas as possible.”
Commissioner Brandon Smith said trash bags will be provide through the PALS program and will be distributed throughout the county at a number of locations and can be obtained from commissioners as well.
“We will have the trash bags available to anyone wanting to help with the cleanup,” Smith said. “We will have those bags available at the Atmore Chamber of Commerce office or they can call me and I’ll make sure they get bags to use.”
White said other locations will also have bags available for volunteers.
“Bags will be available at the Flomaton Chamber of Commerce and at each of our shops throughout the county,” White said. “They are also available at the Escambia County Courthouse in the Commission office. We will do everything we can to make this cleanup week as easy as possible for those who want to part of the effort.”
White can be reached at 538-0472 with Wiggins available at 867-7429 or 238-1606. Smith may be reached in the Atmore area by calling 254-0817.