Adopt-a-Highway groups ready to pick up

By MIKE JAMES - The Independent

FRANKFORT March 23, 2008 10:42 pm

— Spring is the season for cleaning, and volunteer groups from northeastern Kentucky and around the state are making plans to spruce up highways.
It’s the annual spring-cleaning push for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Adopt-A-Highway program. Established in 1988, the program currently includes about 1,100 groups, and volunteer crews clean about 8,000 miles of roadside every year, according to Department of Highways District 9 spokesman Allen Blair.
Many groups plan their spring cleanups for this week, so expect to see volunteers with filling trash bags on a highway near you any time between today and Friday.
Other groups arrange their cleanup weeks later in the spring, so chances are cleanup crews will pop up again in the weeks to come.
In northeastern Kentucky, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers put a serious dent in roadside litter. Highway department figures show in Boyd County alone volunteers police 70 out of 152 miles of primary and secondary roadways. That’s about 46 percent of the total.
Other counties include:
—Greenup — 76 of 247 miles, 31 percent.
—Carter — 74 of 278 miles, 27 percent.
—Elliott — 20 of 157 miles, 13 percent.
The program promotes environmental awareness and tourism, enhances community pride, and sets an example of stewardship, state officials say.
That it does, agrees Ted Toponak, president of the Kiwanis Club of East Greenup County. The club is responsible for a section of U.S. 23 between Raceland-Worthington High School and the Industrial Parkway.
His group usually arranges its cleanup week for the end of April, in part because Kiwanians coordinate with high school Beta clubs, which they sponsor.
The East Greenup club works with Beta clubs in Russell, Raceland and Greenup.
The cleanup project meshes well with his club’s major focus, which is working with kids to instill citizenship, Toponak said.
“It gives them a sense of responsibility and ownership and pride,” he said.
Students at the Ramey-Estep Homes are another group who help out, picking up a stretch of Ky. 854, according to shift manager Jim VanHoose.
In doing so, they help themselves, he believes.
“They often don’t realize it at first but once they see how much they’ve picked up, they have a feeling of accomplishment,” VanHoose said.
His group goes out once in the spring and again in the fall; the roadway is noticeably more attractive afterward, he said. VanHoose thinks everyone should get their organization or club involved.
The transportation cabinet spend about $5 million and 200,000 worker hours every year to remove litter; volunteers help the state keep those costs down.
Any permanently established business, association, community or public organization, or government entity may participate, adopting a two-mile stretch of highway.
To get involved, check the project’s Web site at www.adopt-a-highway.ky.gov or call Jenny Perkins at 1-800-817-2551.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.