County officials agree that Surry has a problem with trash along roadsides.
One idea for helping the situation? Looking into resurrecting highway chain gangs.
A Mount Airy man raised the litter topic during open forum at the start of this week’s meeting of the Surry County Board of Commissioners.
J.T. Henson said he had a few “bullet points” that he would like to see addressed when the board next convenes for its annual retreat Wednesday (where it typically discusses the upcoming budget cycle and long-range planning).
“We need to get the jail on the list, expedited. Every day we delay that project, the price of building materials is going up, and it’s costing us for transportation, and our overcrowding has not ceased at all,” said Henson.
When it came to litter, Henson said, “Now it’s been blamed on the coronavirus, but I will submit to you that we had trash before the coronavirus.”
As for those guilty of it, he said, “It’s an attitude thing. Sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, a guy just threw out a bunch of trash in the parking lot. Not more than 50 feet away was a trash can.”
If a citizen goes as far as confronting one of these offenders, the person typically responds with an extended middle finger, Henson noted.
Board reacts
While the board doesn’t chime in on comments during the open forum, when it came time for general county business an hour later, the East District representative returned to the topic.
“This litter is a terrible issue,” Commissioner Van Tucker agreed. It came up at a board meeting recently for a long discussion.
“I’m going on my sixth year on the board; I’ve never had as many calls from citizens about the nasty trash on the sides of the roads, and they’re absolutely right.”
“So I’ve reached out here lately, and I’ve talked to some folks in Raleigh on the General Assembly level.” He asked around about how surrounding counties are addressing their own litter issues for ideas to use here.
“One thing is the D.O.T. has essentially done nothing, at their own admission, for the last 12 months,” he said of the N.C. Department of Transportation. “On these contracts we’ve had, on these rotating lists of highways that we’ve had, they’ve essentially done nothing. COVID came along and we simply quit picking up trash. That’s one of the reasons that people are complaining.”
COVID, Tucker said, “it seems to have reared its ugly head on just about everything we’ve been involved in for the last 12 months.”
He said at one point he spoke to the North Carolina Sheriffs Association about litter programs that they were aware of. He said the lead counsel in the association directed him to Sheriff Sam Page of Rockingham County.
“I called him up and I said, ‘Sheriff, do you guys get up litter over there with your work force, your inmates?’” Page replied they do.
Rockingham uses a team of four workers at a time to collect garbage, he said. “They not only are volunteers, but they are highly selected amongst the jail staff.”
Tucker said since he and Commissioner Larry Johnson came on the board, they have worked with three different sheriffs (Graham Atkinson, Jimmy Combs and now Steve Hiatt). He said when the idea of a road gang has come up before, he has been told there was a concern about liability, but he couldn’t get any particulars. He was told there could be funding issues, but he never heard any money numbers.
“I am extremely excited about this program. I am extremely excited about maybe Surry County at least entertaining the thought of it, and sitting down and having some old-fashioned discussion amongst the sheriff’s department and some of their representatives and this board.”
“In this case in Rockingham County they purchased a van, a trailer, a portable toilet, the signage and all the equipment needed — funded it through their enterprise fund. They tell me it is working wonderfully.”
Tucker asked that the topic be put on the agenda for discussion during the day-long annual retreat on Wednesday at the Government Service Center in Dobson.
“I think now is the time to really get serious about addressing (the topic),” he said.
“If it’s a terrible idea, I’d like for somebody to tell me why. At least we can have that conversation until we get those answers. If it’s a wonderful idea, I’d like to get on it just as quick as possible. And if it’s somewhere in the middle, at least maybe it’s worth some solid, hard discussion.”
“Thank you,” Chairman Mark Marion said to Tucker. “I am 100% behind that effort. I, too, like you have received numerous calls — and you don’t have to go far to see what they’re talking about. Drive up 601, down 89, it’s horrible.”
“I don’t look at this as a terrible, punitive-type punishment we can lay on our inmates,” Tucker said, adding that if he were trapped in one of those cells day after day, he would love to be the first person to sign up for road detail just to get outside in the sunshine and fresh air.
“Jamie Woods is our District 11 litter coordinator with the North Carolina DOT,” said Commissioner Eddie Harris. As Tucker said, the DOT went a year without picking up any trash, but Harris said about two weeks ago the state did restart litter detail in this county.
The interstate contract is still suspended, however, he said. But with the other work restarting, the citizens ought to start seeing a little bit of relief.
Harris said he spoke to Woods recently.
“Jamie did tell me that it was so bad at 74 and 601 over there that they spent three days at that one interchange … picking up trash,” he said.
Commissioner Larry Johnson said he supports doing something about litter. He would even be in favor of using some county funds to pay a service for temporary help for a “spring cleaning” of roadways.
Harris has said before that he supports businesses and civic groups taking part in the Adopt-A-Highway Program, but he would like to see a resurgence in membership and participation.
Even still, he noted that last year the program removed 3,240 pounds of litter from county roadways.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com