The head of public works for the city of Burlington insists that he more or less has litter removal in the bag thanks to a relatively new initiative within his department.
In a report to Burlington’s city council on Monday, Gary Smith, the city’s public works director, credited this new, one-man litter collection detail with an appreciable reduction in roadside trash within the city’s municipal limits.
Smith reminded the council that his department began to compile a list of litter hot spots a couple of years ago in response to an uptick in complaints from the general public. Since then, he recalled that money has been set aside in the city’s freestanding stormwater fund to provide him with a staff member and vehicle to clean up these refuse repositories.
“Right now, it’s a little over 20 areas that are regular problems,” Smith went on to explain. “This new person, he goes to these areas on [garbage] collection days, and he addresses those areas first.”
Smith noted that the areas currently frequented by this new staff member include portions of Maple Avenue, Mebane Street, Plantation Drive, Beaumont Avenue, and the Glen Raven neighborhood – as well as various routes that lead to Alamance County’s landfill.
The city’s public works director added that this litter collection specialist works in tandem with the city’s garbage collection crews to identify other extrusions of garbage throughout the city. He added that, up until now, this staff member has hauled off this debris in the back of a departmental pickup truck, although the city has recently acquired a new rear-loading garbage truck that Smith said will make these duties much easier.
In any event, Smith told the council that this new detail has done much to reduce the proliferation of litter throughout the community.
“So far, we’re seeing good results,” he insisted, “and we’re not getting as many calls [from the public].”
The impact of this new litter collection program was also apparent enough to the city’s elected officials.
“From the visual perspective, it seems to be working,” Burlington’s mayor Jim Butler told the city’s public works director after his presentation. “So, congratulations for that.”
