Next time you drive down Scenic Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona and Highway 260 between Cottonwood and Camp Verde what do you see in terms of highway trash? Has this situation improved between 2009 and 2012?

I’m an outsider who has lived in the Verde Valley more than 4 years. Working with the original 2009 “Road Warriors”, we’ve tried to make a differnce in the amount of highway trash that has become a slow growing cancer that destroys tourism, real estate sales, home values and the ability to attract new businesses in the Verde Valley and Arizona.

Between 2009 and 2011 I became one of the 15 ADOT Adopt-A-Highway participants who have collected and for the most part recycled 1562 blue bags of illegally dumped or OOPs trash.

Please Google the SedonaEYE.com, Camp Verde Bugle, or the Verde Independent for the stories of what is now 30 ADOT Adopt-A-Highway groups who on November 19, 2011 collected 404 bags of trash and many othere large items on 15 miles of Scenic Highway 89A and 15 miles of Highway 260. Thanks to this local media, our story is spreading nationwide because of our out-of-the-box approach to self-managing Arizona’s broken Adopt-A-Highway program.

In Folksville USA, 30 Adopt-A-Highway groups pick it up, display it, and RECYCLE ALL OF THE CONTENTS of the “blue” ADOT bags thanks to Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch, Reese & Son’s Tire, Tire Pro Automotive, Cornville’s Windmill Garden, and at times over 300 residents who pick it up and place it in the bags.

Gary Chamberlain
“Point Man” FVUSA