EcoEKY: Green News from Eastern Kentucky

from the Harlan Daily Enterprise:

Harlan Countians urged to pitch in during spring cleanup

Over 300 volunteers participated in 2007

By JOHN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 11:03 PM CDT

The 2008 Harlan County PRIDE Spring Cleanup has been scheduled for April 5-19, and Harlan County Solid Waste Coordinator Lakis Mavinidis said he would like to encourage all citizens to get involved and help keep their community clean.

“We would like to ask everyone to start by cleaning up their own homes,” he said. “It’s important for everyone to work together to clean up our communities.”

“We would like to get everyone involved,” added Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop. “Cleaning up the environment improves our quality of life.”

The PRIDE Spring Cleanup is a two-week period designated for environmental cleaning throughout southeastern Kentucky. During this time, coordinators organize cleanup events in their communities and clean illegal dumps, roadsides and waterways.

*
Mavinidis said that 8,500 bags of litter and 300 tons of waste from illegal dumps were cleaned by over 300 volunteers in 2007. He said that he expects this year’s cleanup to continue the success of previous events, and added that the PRIDE Spring Cleanup is an opportunity for residents to build on this momentum and demonstrate personal responsibility by volunteering to pick up trash in their communities and taking advantage of free trash disposal services.

“We have had great participation in the past, and I think that will continue this year. We have always had good turnouts,” Mavinidis said. “We want to have another good spring cleaning season this year.”

He added that the amount of litter collected in Harlan County has steadily decreased, but more work is required before the problem is solved.

“We have been involved in the PRIDE program since 1997, and we have seen an increase in support since then. It is important that we continue what we started and, hopefully, bring the litter problem to a close,” Mavinidis said.

“The amount of litter around the county has been reduced considerably, but it is still a problem,” Grieshop said.

Anyone interested in conducting a cleanup project during the spring cleanup may call Grieshop’s office at 573-2600 or the Harlan County Recycling Center at 573-9423.