Dear Mr. Halikowski (ADOT),
As you know, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the barrel.
ADOT Highway 89A reflectors
While cleaning the Folksville USA one-mile section of Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona (MP-356 to 357) today, I noticed the new reflectors that were recently installed.
I also noticed that the old reflectors were thrown in the grass and many ended up in the asphalt debris piles.
Those of us – and particularly me – who clean our highways do not appreciate the ADOT/ADOT subcontractor debris we constantly find on the highway. It poses the question, could those responsible be charged with littering?
Discarded ADOT reflectors litter Highway 89A
Would it be correct to assume that ADOT is to properly manage these projects and the subcontractors ….. large and small?
Please advise how this issue will be corrected. There are many hard working ADOT men and women that don’t deserve this kind of attention.
If we could just get Highway 260 mowed and the brush cut back from the guardrails so ADOT AAH Groups could safely claim trash and cyclists wouldn’t be pushed further into the highway.
The recent mowing of Highway 89A was greatly appreciated.
PS – the new reflectors look nice.
Gary Chamberlain Cornville, Arizona FolksvilleUSA@gmail.com
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Why are certain things overlooked in America ?
Why is Social Littering pretty much a quiet issue (except for the few voices of patriotic citizens like Gary Chamberlain who commits himself daily to trying to get AZ clean & beautiful through clean up activities and anti litter idea suggestions) !
I take special note of Mr Chamberlain’s mention that not even 20% of all USA states have bottle or beverage can deposits & Keep America Beautiful & all its 500 or more affiliates don’t help promote getting bottle deposits to become a National Law !
A person truly has to wonder is Keep America Beautiful a legitimate anti litter non profit society or could it be that America’s biggest polluters ( Big Tobacco , Beverage Industry and etc ) pay Keep America Beautiful to do a few pretend anti litter activities to make the public believe they all care ?
In my opinion ( Keep America Beautiful is nothing more then a BIG FRONT GROUP ) bought and paid for by the mass production corporations as nothing more then a big public relations spin non profit ( why else would they not promote having beverage deposits laws that can reduce beverage litter by as high as 90 %) ?
It is rather shameful how Keep America Beautiful uses litter clean up efforts that happen from patriotic litter cleaner uppers like Mr Gary Chamberlain of Folksville USA to promote that Keep America Beautiful is the USA number one anti litter effort (actually KAB does only one thing – ” Lip Service ” ). They “Keep America Beautiful” do no Litter Clean Up whatsoever and give the volunteers who do the work not one single penny – don’t be mislead by KAB public relation campaigns paid for by many of United States biggest litter pollution contributing factors !
If any Proud USA Major Corporation truly cared about Americas environment they would put their money where their mouths are and sponsor an 100 % increase in anti litter educational events and reward people such as Mr Gary Chamberlain who actually does Keep America Cleaner !
Sincerely,
Canada Litter King ( Anti Litter King )
Admirer of Gary Chamberlain’s Folksville USA anti litter campaigns and his fellow volunteers
Hi Arizonans,
Want to know why people think Wisconsin is so beautiful?
In our city neighborhood we believe if you walk by or toss a piece of trash, you are a piece of trash. Easy, heh? It’s a good thing to pick up and discard trash. Practice frequently.
Burt Stephenson and Abigail Pennewell
Proud Cheeseheads
If I were to forego my trash collection and dump my waste on the side of the highway I would get a ticket and I would certainly deserve a ticket.
ADOT is ultimately responsible for its outside contractors and should be held accountable.
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Donald Cassano wrote:
The Flagstaff District has made contact with the Contractor that handles the road markers. They will make sure that this does not happen again and they will check the area for any additional markers that you did not find.
Once again I want to remind you that as an Adopt A Highway Permittee you are not allowed to do any cleanup in the medians. Safety is the first order of business for all volunteers and working in the median is in violation of your permits.
Regards,
Don
Don Cassano, Ombudsman
Arizona Department of Transportation
206 S. 17th Ave., Room 192
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Don,
I made no attempt to pick up the road markers …. the ADOPT subcontractor who gets paid, with tax payer dollars, needs to do the complete job – and I will let you know if they do not do it – at no charge to ADOT.
If safety and doing a good job of cleaning our highways is our combined goal, when will ADOT be picking up the medians?
The public is asking this question so what will ADOT tell them?
Gary Chamberlain
“Point Man” FVUSA
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Additional comments not in the e-mail above to Don Cassono (ADOT):
If ADOT isn’t interested in mowing, pruning brush back from guardrails for the safety and effectiveness of all ADOT Adopt-A-Highway Groups, then how can these volunteers safely honor their commitment to the ADOT AAH Program?
The efforts of the Adopt-A-Highway groups enhance the beauty of Arizona which improves the economy of Arizona by attracting tourists, new residents and businesses that bring jobs. Doing a half-assed job of mowing, pruning and cleaning our highways is also noticed by those who visit and live in Arizona.
Maybe ADOT could subcontract the services they cannot seem to get done to those who can …. other states subcontract mowing, pruning and litter recovery. These subcontractors pay their helpers $8-$10 per hour to provide these services.
How do I know this is true? I ask questions and visit with these subcontractors – to which I receive information and answers.
Gary Chamberlain
“Point Man” FVUSA
June 12, 2012
Dear Mr. Halikowski (Director of ADOT),
Those of us who are part of Folksville USA’s effort to restore the beauty to Arizona’s highways have now reached the point of realizing that there must be a meeting with your office, Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona Representatives from both parties to review the poor performance associated with the tax payer funded ADOT Adopt-A-Highway Program and its crippling rules, regulations and requirements.
Working together, we can all do a much better job of making this program work and benefit Arizona.
Without this meeting, Arizona will never have the clean highways it needs to attract tourists, new residents and the new businesses that could bring jobs to our state.
Without this meeting the tax payers of Arizona are funding another failed program that only benefits public sector employees some of which don’t do their jobs and the proof of this accusation is the lack of the ADOT “Activity Reports” to support compliance with ADOT’s requirements.
The following information was taken from ADOT’s Adopt-A-Highway web site on May 26, 2012.
Volunteer groups adopt a two mile section along available State, Interstate, or United States highway. Groups sign up by completing a two year permit application. We generally ask that groups perform cleanups three to four times each year. Members of the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program should be volunteers and not paid to pick up litter. Groups can partner with other volunteer groups, but may not pay another group or company to pick up litter.
ADOT will provide safety training, trash bags, and two signs to be used at each end of the adopted section. Signs will ONLY be installed once a cleanup activity is completed. If safety vests are not available from ADOT, the volunteer group must purchase them. Washable safety vests can be obtained from local vendors.
More information about becoming an Adopt a Highway volunteer can be found under the Volunteer link in the left hand navigation menu.
FVUSA comment to requirements:
Three to four times per means that each group commits approximately 9-12 hours per year in exchange for a sign with the Volunteer Groups name shown, two steel posts to hold the sign, two holes dug in the ground for the two posts, concrete to secure the two sign posts, a asset tag on each group sign for monitoring the signs, the guarantee and contract that each volunteer group signs that their volunteer groups will honor their commitment to the tax payer funded program which is to be managed by Arizona ADOTemployees that the volunteer groups honor their commitment.
Our Verde Valley “Folksville USA” effort is a perfect example of how private citizens, working together have changed the appearance of our highways and increased the performance of our 30 groups from 25% to 90% honoring their commitment to the program.
I will be spending the next few weeks trying to find our state leaders, County Supervisors, Mayors and City Managers who will arrange such a meeting and I hope that ADOT takes the lead on making this happen.
We have a 94 year old World War veteran who helps us clean our highways, what would you say to him and other veterans who see how we disgrace our three Arizona veteran’s highways?
The I-10 is our Pearl Harbor Highway, the I-17 is our Arizona Veteran’s Highway and our I-40 is our Purple Heart Trail Highway are a disgrace!
Do we really care?
Gary Chamberlain “Point Man” FVUSA
Day 2 … ADOT continues to trash Scenic Highway 89A …
June 13, 2012
Dear Governor Brewer and Director Halikowski (Director of ADOT),
I just returned from cleaning another one-mile section of Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona (MP-364 to 365) only to find more piles of reflectors from the ADOT reflector replacement project.
In all, there were three separate piles consisting of only reflectors only and two piles of asphalt with reflectors mixed in them.
Please help me understand how this has been allowed to go unnoticed and corrected. Please let your ADOT folks know that those who CRAP up the Verde Valley won’t get away with it! I would say it’s time to review the performance of those who seem to think that the tax payers will tolerate this behavior.
I will be spending the next few weeks trying to find our state leaders, County Supervisors, Mayors and City Managers who wish to restore the beauty to Arizona and correct some bad ADOT behavior.
We have a 94 year old World War veteran and several other veterans who clean our highways, what would you say to them about this behavior and our three Arizona veterans highways that are trashed? Highway I-10 is our Arizona Pearl Harbor Highway, I-17 is our Arizona Veterans Highway and I-40 is our Arizona Purple Heart Trail.
These highways are a disgrace to our veterans and Arizona residents!
Does ADOT really care? How is the “Partnering” ADOT pretends to promote?
Gary Chamberlain
Cornville AZ
“Point Man” FVUSA
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Readers, please contact …..
Governor Jan Brewer-Arizona
Executive Tower
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(602) 542-4331
ADOT Director John Halikowski
206 South 17th Ave.
MD-100A
Phoenix, AZ
(602) 712 7227
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It certainly seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain has the right idea…and that ADOT is falling seriously behind. We, as AMERICANS have a stake in how our cities and states represent ourselves to incoming tourists and ESPECIALLY businesses… Our dear and beloved Republic has been so trashed over the past 3 1/2 years by the current administration, and you’d think that EVERY state would be doing whatever it could to bring in jobs and businesses so that AMERICANS could work, and get on with their lives. Yet, apparently, there are those who simply don’t care…Sad for us all.
Sincerely, Jackie Hardy
Until the authorities start giving out tickets for people throwing out trash it will never end. How many have you ever read about that got a ticket for littering? If there was a deposit on cans and bottles of at least 5 cents it would be worth it for people to pick it up behind others. I remember years ago driving from Utah with their super clean road areas and then entering Arizona. It looked like the local dump on the side of the roads.