EcoEKY: Green News from Eastern Kentucky

from the Clay County News:

Bishop will lead local PRIDE Spring Cleanup for Clay Co.

Manchester, Ky. — Judge-Executive Carl Sizemore reminds everyone that Michael Bishop is serving as the Clay County PRIDE Coordinator. In this voluntary position, he will plan local cleanup efforts and helps the community take advantage of PRIDE programs.

Spring Cleanup April 5-19

Mr. Bishop will lead the local PRIDE Spring Cleanup, April 5 through April 19. He is looking for volunteers for cleanup events across the community. PRIDE will supply T-shirts, trash bags, and safety vests for the volunteers.

PRIDE Coordinators are volunteers who play a vital role in building PRIDE in their communities. The coordinators organize cleanup activities, recruit volunteers and track cleanup results. They assist local officials with the PRIDE programs, including applications for grants. They also serve on the PRIDE Board of Directors.

PRIDE promotes “Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment” in 38 counties of southern and eastern Kentucky. PRIDE links citizens with the resources of local, state and federal agencies to clean up the region’s waterways, end illegal trash dumps and promote environmental education. PRIDE was started in 1997 by Congressman Hal Rogers and the late James Bickford, former Secretary of the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.

For more information about PRIDE in your community or volunteering during the PRIDE Spring Cleanup, call Michael Bishop today at 606/391-3063, or visit www.kypride.org.

from the Clay County News:

Mathis will lead local PRIDE Spring Cleanup for the City of Manchester

Manchester, Ky. — Mayor Carmen Lewis reminds everyone that Pam Mathis is serving as the City of Manchester’s PRIDE Coordinator. In this voluntary position, she will plan local cleanup efforts and helps the community take advantage of PRIDE programs.

Ms. Mathis works at City Hall as the PRIDE Coordinator, Deputy Clerk and Grant Writer. She has lived in Clay County for 35 years and currently resides in the Burning Springs community with her family.

“I look forward to serving as PRIDE Coordinator because volunteering to help make a city and county a cleaner place to live is very enjoyable,” she said. “PRIDE is making a difference in the City of Manchester while giving us a chance to show our pride in clean roads and streets as well as our waterways and streams. “

Ms. Mathis added, “We encourage everyone to recycle and help save our environment and decrease our landfills.”

Spring Cleanup April 5-19

Ms. Mathis will lead the local PRIDE Spring Cleanup, April 5 through April 19. She is looking for volunteers for cleanup events across the community. PRIDE will supply T-shirts, trash bags, and safety vests for the volunteers.

“I invite you to lend a hand during the Spring Cleanup because your help will help us make our city and county clean and help provide for a safe environment. Join us for the month of April from the 5th until the 30th,”she said.

PRIDE Coordinators are volunteers who play a vital role in building PRIDE in their communities. The coordinators organize cleanup activities, recruit volunteers and track cleanup results. They assist local officials with the PRIDE programs, including applications for grants. They also serve on the PRIDE Board of Directors.

PRIDE promotes “Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment” in 38 counties of southern and eastern Kentucky. PRIDE links citizens with the resources of local, state and federal agencies to clean up the region’s waterways, end illegal trash dumps and promote environmental education. PRIDE was started in 1997 by Congressman Hal Rogers and the late James Bickford, former Secretary of the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.

For more information about PRIDE in your community or volunteering during the PRIDE Spring Cleanup, call Pam Mathis today at 606/598-3456, or visit www.kypride.org.

From the Ashland Daily-Independent Online:

Put trash here

Published: March 31, 2008 04:03 pm

Lawrence County plans to use an $8,400 award from East Kentucky PRIDE to place 14 large roll-off trash bins at 12 locations throughout the county. Here’s hoping they prove more effective than the first “green boxes” placed throughout the county more than 25 years ago.

There are at least two reasons to hope that this effort will be more successful. One is that attitudes about illegal dumps and litter have changed in the last quarter of a century. The other is that the Lawrence County Fiscal Court recently enacted a mandatory trash collection ordinance.

Instead of ordinary household waste, Eddie Michael — the former Lawrence County school superintendent who now serves as the county’s deputy judge-executive — said the new dumpsters will be for old appliances, cabinets and other items too large to be picked up by regular trash collectors. In fact, about the only items that the bins will not collect are old tires and glass and items primarily made out of glass.

Back in the early 1980s, Lawrence County became one of the first area counties to place green boxes throughout the county where residents could deposit their household waste. It was hoped the dumpsters would eliminate — or at least reduce — illegal dumping in the county.

But it didn’t quite work that way. Instead of becoming a way to eliminate eyesores in the county, the green boxes became eyesores. So many people deposited trash in them, that the county could not empty them quickly enough. Thus, each of the dump sites soon became littered with trash. Finding the trash containers full, residents wanting to use them for their trash simply dumped the trash on the ground near them.

County officials soon concluded that the green baxes were causing more problems than they solved, and they were removed. What had seemed like a good idea for eliminating illegal dumping did not work that way in practice.

But in the ensuing years, attitudes about trash have changed. For that, PRIDE — Personal Responsibility for a Desirable Environment — deserves much of the credit. Since being founded in 1997 by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers and the late James Bickford, secretary of the state environmental protection cabinet under former Gov. Paul Patton, PRIDE has emphasized the need to end the trashing of eastern Kentucky. The efforts of Rogers and many others have been effective. While illegal dumping continues to be a problem in the region, it is not nearly as bad as it was a decade ago.

Michael said no Lawrence County resident will be more than three miles from a collection bin. And if the elderly or disabled cannot get the items to the dumpsters, the county will pick them up. That should eliminate any excuses for throwing the old washing machine over a hillside instead of placing it in one of the dumpsters.

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.

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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.