Gary Chamberlain, Folksville USA Point Man

Sedona AZ (February 12, 2013) – Many of the Arizona Adopt-A-Highway groups and Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) can do better! The ADOT employees that get paid to manage the Adopt-A-Highway program are not getting the results the taxpayers deserve. ADOT’s records prove it!

In 2009, the anti-litter clean up performance of the fifteen (15) Verde Valley Adopt-A-Highway groups between Cottonwood and Sedona was a mere 20%! And, the Adopt-A-Highway groups responsible for the fifteen miles of Arizona State Highway 260 between Cottonwood and Camp Verde? Only about 33% were picking up litter on that stretch of highway!

Taxpayers were spending 100% on roadway signage and a bureaucratic program complete with employees! It took involved taxpayers to demand that ADOT and its Adopt-a-Highway program be accountable for its tax dollars that slowly prodded the state bureaucracy into action, and by 2011, 86% of Arizona’s Adopt-a-Highway groups began to honor signed commitments. 

It should be stated, in fairness to the adoptee groups, between 2009 and 2011, ADOT  not properly managing the Adopt-A-Highway program nor was it mowing highway shoulders and medians to make it safe and effective for the Adopt-A-Highway groups to clean. Finally, in 2012, ADOT began to mow some shoulders and median strips in response to public health and safety requests that it provide support for volunteer highway clean up groups, cyclists and pedestrians.

Between February 2009 and February 2012, exactly thirty six months, 1592 bags of trash were removed from fifteen miles of Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona by Adopt-A-Highway groups! Imagine what will be accomplished when ADOT becomes 100% committed to supporting its anti-litter mandate!

Does the Arizona public want thousands of beverage containers and fast-food items tossed onto its highways and shoulders? If not for the volunteers from Folksville USA, ADOT Adopt-a-Highway permittees, and other anti-litter individuals and groups, 1592 33-gallon bags of trash would still be littering our scenic views and highways!

Mr. Bud Light and associates in FUSA Litter Police Line-up

So take the time to look around when driving or walking! Do you see discarded alcohol containers? Empty containers are discarded by those drinking while driving! Discarded alcohol containers represent an underbelly of illegality, and complete societal indifference. And fatalities?

Until parents, schools, businesses and residents do a better job of teaching civic responsibility, we will forever be picking up after those that have no shame, no pride, no respect for our fragile desert ecosystems. We must better educate that litter and litterers help destroy local economies, and have negative impacts on the health, safety and the vitality of our state and communities.

The economic and social bottom line? Nobody wants to vacation, move into and or relocate businesses to areas that look like refuse dumps. 

Ask your local governments what is being done to enforce load cover ordinances? Ask what fines have been levied and collected by those not abiding by your local ordinances and state laws? Taxpayers have the right to know!

There is a golden opportunity for youth, elderly, individuals and and civic groups to assist the Verde Valley Adopt-A-Highway groups on February 16, 2013, to help clean up highway litter! Everyone is welcome – there is a job that you can do whether it’s highway litter pick up or trash recycling! Email Gary Chamberlain at FolksvilleUSA@gmail.com and ask what you can do.

Too busy or possibly out of town on February 16? You can still participate. Donate $10 to the February 16 volunteers to bag a Bag of Trash in your name! Or if you prefer to recycle trash, donate $10 to Folksville USA to Recycle a Bag. Your donation is always appreciated.

Want to lend a hand to the 30 Adopt-A-Highway groups in the Verde Valley and the areas of Dewey, Prescott Valley and Prescott? Call 928-202-1186 or FolksvilleUSA@gmail.com and we’ll tell you where and when.

And Folksville USA and Adopt-a-Highway permittees always remember to say, Thank You!

This SedonaEye.com article written and submitted by Gary Chamberlain, Folksville USA Point Man, and Arizona taxpayer and resident of Cornville. Folksville USA is a virtual town where everyone is welcome to volunteer for litter abatement and education events.

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