Project helps with neighborhood cleanup
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY, Georgia (Albany Herald) — A neighborhood spruce-up campaign is sweeping around a second time to Albany communities, with an emphasis this time on sustaining the attractive look accomplished by city workers.
Part of the emphasis of Operation Clean Sweep is for residents to buy in to keeping yards neat and trash cleaned up. To that end, the city of Albany plans an educational campaign on properly disposing of yard debris and household items by the roadside for collection.
Workers from several departments, including Parks and Recreation and Public Works, trimmed limbs, mowed rights of way and picked up debris Thursday on Johnny W. Williams Road from the dead end to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
“This was such a (hit) when we did this in the fall,” Albany City Commissioner Demetriuis Young, in whose Ward VI the work took place, said. “I think everybody loves this going into the holiday season.”
The street was selected based on need and residents’ input.
“This is definitely an area we wanted to concentrate on,” Young said.
In coming weeks, the city plans to get the message out for residents to do their part. This will include education on how to properly place debris by the roadway for pickup and the need to separate vegetation like tree limbs and lawn trimmings from other items such as furniture and clothing, Public Works Director Stacey Rowe said. When those things are commingled, it means that everything, including the inert vegetation, has to be placed in the landfill, which is expensive and inefficient.
“Hopefully the neighborhoods will buy in and help us, not (for them to) do everything,” he said. “We’re trying to make Albany a better place to live, a safer place to live. It all starts with something as simple as litter. We’re trying to get the community to help us.”
Operation Clean Sweep, which started in November, has had an impact since it started, Rowe said.
“I think we have moved the needle in the right direction,” he said.
Fred Works, whose house on Johnny W. Williams Road sits a short distance from a lot where city crews staged their equipment before beginning work, said lead-footed drivers also are an issue in the area.
“One of the main things is speed,” he said. “It’s like a race track down here … trash, four-wheelers” he said. “We need a law enforcement (presence) down here. They need to enforce the law more. People just don’t seem to care.”
Young said he will hold four town hall meetings in his ward, with the first at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Morningside Elementary School, to hear area residents’ concerns.
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