Pick It Up! Report for 2016

POMEROY – In the past two years, workers for the Meigs County – Pick It Up! Program have cleaned over 800 miles of township and county roads, collecting nearly 4,000 bags of litter.

The Meigs Soil and Water Conservation District administers the program in partnership with the Meigs County Board of Commissioners and the Gallia-Jackson-Meigs-Vinton Solid Waste Management District. The program started in January, 2014.

In 2015 the crew picked up 2,090 bags of roadside litter alongside 384.4 miles of county and township roads, collected 742 tires and cleaned 10 illegal dump sites, according to Steve Jenkins, program administrator for the Meigs SWCD.

In 2014 the crew cleaned 430 miles of county and township roads, picking up 1,820 bags of litter, 690 tires, and cleaning six illegal dump sites.

The program currently has three part-time employees.

“The workers have picked up along every county road each of the past two years, along with township roads throughout the county, but the problem is that people keep littering,” Jenkins explained. “They can clean up a road and two weeks later it looks just as trashy.”

With more than 760 miles of county and township roads scattered through 12 township, there is no way that one crew can get to all them. For that reason part of the program is devoted to helping groups or neighbors to do their own cleanup projects on their own roads.

Any group interested in doing their own cleanup as a community service project can call the Meigs SWCD office at 740-992-4282, weekdays between 8-4:30 p.m. to make arrangements. Meigs County – Pick It Up! will supply bags, gloves, high-visibility vests and will collect the bags left along the road.

Other upcoming events in Meigs County include the 16th annual Leading Creek Stream Sweep, which will be held April 23, 9 a.m. to noon at the Meigs SWCD Conservation Area on New Lima Road between Rutland and Harrisonville.

The sixth Meigs County Clean-up Day will be held May 21, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rock Springs Fairgrounds. In addition the annual Ohio River Sweep will be held June 18, 9 a.m. to noon.