Home » From The Readers, Letters to the Editor » Folksville USA Point Man Talks Trash

Folksville USA Point Man Talks Trash

Sedona AZ (March 31 2011)–Based on Folksville USA efforts for the past two years, plus recent and more frequent articles, I believe Arizona may be waking up to the “Trashing of America” and how the “Broken Window Theory” applies to our highways and communities.

 

As a veteran and American who has and continues to fight to defend this country, I salute those who take the time to write editorials about this topic and help recover someone else’s CRAP from our highways.

 

I don’t believe those who litter our country realize the time, energy, and money that it takes to restore the beauty to “America the (once) Beautiful”. Those who litter need to understand that they may or may not be employed because those who could move their families or businesses to Arizona may pass it by due to what they see reflected on our highways and byways, a culture of CRAP.

 

“Litter Bugs” think about this as you throw your CRAP onto our highways and byways! Cats and most animals don’t “poop in their own nest” and if, for no other reason, stop your litter habits and honor your community, military veterans, and your selves. Taxpayers, save your own orecious dollars by not littering! Have PRIDE, save MONEY, keep America BEAUTIFUL!

 

 

Folksville USA Original Cornville Road Warriors

I spent ten hours yesterday between Cottonwood and Sedona recovering aluminums cans from the shoulders and edges of the median from Scenic Highway 89A. I filled a 42-gallon plastic bag (bags donated by Cottonwood Home Depot) full of beer, soft drink and miscellaneous cans.  In 25 months, we have recovered 1,166 bags of others CRAP from this fifteen mile section of Scenic 89A highway!

 

Our group or I will return another day to recover the HUNDREDS of recently tossed CRAP beer bottles, whiskey bottles and mini-shot alcohol bottles from our Scenic Highway 89A. How safe are our highways and do litter violation signs work, or are they just eye-wash?

 

You may want to ask law enforcement how many litter and load cover citations they write per year? Obviously there are many violators!

 

Here’s a thank you to Home Depot in Prescott and Prescott Valley, two stores that just contributed “Litter Grabbers” which will be given to the first new group or groups who participate in the Arizona Adopt-A-Highway program in the Prescott or Prescott Valley area.

 

Our Folksville USA, American Trash Warriors and American Litter Locust efforts are now busy in Prescott and Prescott Valley. We are there to serve our country and your community. We are garnering national attention due to our groups’ out-of-the-box approach to gathering and recycling the litter we collect.

 

Our web page is currently being redesigned by one of Prescott Valley’s “Caddis Branding Agency” so until it’s finished, you may see what we’re doing by Googling “Gary Chamberlain+litter or Folksville USA.” We have an anti-CRAP group effort on-going in Cornville, and I’m the BIG MOUTH who will say what needs say’n to get the job done!

 

Two Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW’s), one in Prescott and one in Prescott Valley, are about to join our efforts. KYCA 1490 AM Prescott featured our stories on the Dr. Terry Lovell program. Tune in!

 

Will you become one of our boots-on-the-ground volunteers and get some skin-in-the-game to stomp out “Litter Bugs” or will you sit and watch the Trashing of America through its broken window?          

 

All comments, questions and criticism welcome at FolksvilleUSA@gmail.com. Get involved!

 

Gary Chamberlain

“Point Man” Folksville USA

Army, “Blackhawk 83”

Vietnam 1967

Cornville AZ

 

4 Comments

  1. Dave Miller says:

    Gary

    I want to applaud your efforts to get our highways clean and keep them clean however I have 2 concerns that I want to express to you:
    1. I have noticed that State Hwy Dept has finally picked up the bags off of Hwy 89A from the past cleanups but much trash remains that has placed over reflecter posts and sign posts. I think I have read that you do this on purpose to send a message. Unfortunately it is still trash remaining and is very unsightly. I would encourage you to refrain fom doing this in the future as it is unsightly and defeats the purpose of your cleanup efforts.
    2. I would also suggest that in the future that you encourage the State to pick up trash as soon as possible after a cleanup. I do not feel that it serves any useful purpose to keep the bags out there for several weeks to “send a message”.
    Thanks again for your efforts.

    Dave Miller

  2. Gary Chamberlain says:

    Dave and Judy,

    First of all, thanks for your comments.

    The state doesn’t pick up our bags on Scenic Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona or Highway 260 between Cottonwood and Camp Verde. We have two tire stores who volunteer time to pick the bags up, one week after each of the SCHEDULED 4 litter recovery dates. Due to a few folks not being able to meet the scheduled dates, we had to leave some bags out for an extra week which wasn’t our intent.

    We now have a process in place which saves our Highway Maintenance Department from recovering the bags, and we are recycling ALL of the contents in our process which now means that only 20% of the contents go to the landfill, and our ADOT litter bags are being used up to 3 times.

    Our entire process is saving our ADOT Maintenance Departments time and the taxpayers money. In 2009, we had 25% of the ADOT Adopt-A-Highway Permittee’s honoring their commitment to the program they signed up for and agreed to honor. In 2010, 35% were compliant to the program and in 2011, we have a commitment of 86% who have agreed to clean their section 3x per year or more.

    I would be please to discuss our approach with your group any time and answer any questions as to our approach. I hope you take the time to walk some portions of Scenic Highway 89A and compare how it looked in 2009, and how it looks now. You can actually see the wild flowers without getting angry looking at all the trash.

    The people you should possibly consider addressing are those you know well, those who litter and how their actions effect the possible economics of the entire Verde Valley.

    In 2010, Highway 260 became very engaged in making a difference and we have now included I-17 from Flagstaff to Anthem, the !69, the 69, some of the 89 back to the 89A.

    As for stuff tied to the posts–there is a group of people who strongly believe this raises the awareness of litter issues and will help us get some “Boots on the ground”. This group participates if and when they see the amount of litter getting out of hand. Maybe someone you know would be willing to pack off the items they see and they then become part of a wonderful process and make a positive difference. You will be shocked at the number of alcohol and soda bottles and cans that collect every 3 months, 100’s.

    Since our web page is currently down, please consider Googling “Gary Chamberlain+litter” and you will see what we’re doing or have done in two short but very intense years.

    Contact me anytime. I hope you have a better understanding of what we’re doing and what we’ve done in 2 years. Our story is being considered by two national media organizations.

    Thanks.
    Gary

  3. Jack Hallman says:

    Gary and other vets: Received this as an email from a fellow vet and am passing it along to others. This video is almost 8 1/2 minutes long and all I can say is “WOW”. If you don’t watch all of it then you will have really missed something well worth watching.The hours of rehearsing must be forever : Click on below “River Dance” with boots and rifles by the Norwegian Army!

    I can’t remember ever seeing a display of precision to beat this !!

    Those are US made Garand M-1 rifles (WWII), and they are heavy weapons (9 POUNDS EACH) with the modern bayonet. When that one young fellow goes on his own – YOU’VE NEVER SEEN A RIFLE SPUN THAT FAST –

    http://sorisomail.com/email/16993/exibicao-de-banda-militar–um-espectaculo-imperdivel.html

    Jack Hallman
    Bridgeville DE
    WWII Veteran

  4. Gary Chamberlain says:

    Dear Mr. Hallman,

    Thanks for your service and this uplifting link which confims your statement.

    I’m a bit late looking at this but as the “Point Man” I’ve been very busy, along with others, picking up someone else CRAP that was thrown on to the highway as they try to destroy America the Beautiful and disgrace our citizens – including our Armed Forces men and women.

    Thanks to the C’s http://www.SedonaEye.com, we are all able to share our passion and points of view.

    HOO AH!

    Gary Chamberlain
    “Point Man” FVUSA
    http://www.FolksvilleUSA.com

Leave a Reply

Copyright © 2008-2017 · Sedona Eye · All Rights Reserved · Posts · Comments · Facebook · Twitter ·