De’Andre Patrick picks up trash while listening to music on College Hill Road in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. “Our purpose is to just make sure the people around the county have an environment that is clean and tended to. The Lafayette county has received many complaints in the past and that’s why we decided to start these jobs. We honestly just want people to be happy with the environment that they live in.” DM Photo | Payton Teffner
Couches and chairs abandoned alongside Lafayette County roads will no longer sit there for extended periods of time.
The Lafayette County Solid Waster Manager and E-911 Coordinator Bobby Jones established a new, county-based solid waste program called Lafayette Litter Program at the beginning of October.
The waste program aims to promote Lafayette County to produce a cleaner, healthier environment. It will be a program concentrated on county roads and various state highways. The program runs Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The members of the Lafayette Litter Crew will be picking up at least three miles of waste a day.
The program was put in place for two primary reasons: bush hogging and keeping the county beautiful.
A bush hog is a type of rotary mower that cuts the roadside’s grass. The bush hogs on county and state roads were beginning to run over debris on the side of the road and create large amounts of litter for miles, Lafayette county officials said.
“This type of litter from the bush hogs was starting to spread into people’s yards and other properties, so this was a central problem that needed to be addressed,” Jones said. “Our goal is to make Lafayette County the most attractive county it can be.”
Another reason the program was put into action was because Jones wanted to keep the county beautiful and make the land more visually appealing to the many new businesses coming in.
The Lafayette Litter Program will consist of three men, one full-time and two part-time, that will make up the Lafayette Litter Crew. The crew’s primary focus is to pick up litter on the sides of the roads and to keep large items removed from the sides of the roads, such as couches and chairs that have been thrown out.
Lafayette County consists of 677 square miles, and it is made up of more than nine communities. According to Jones, last year there was over 25,000 pounds of litter picked up on Lafayette roadways, and now, the Lafayette Liter Program is estimated to pick up 40,000 pounds year. The first week of the program, the litter crew picked up around 1,200 pounds of waste, Jones said.
Former sheriff’s deputy, Kenneth Drewery is the now the official Lafayette Litter Crew leader. As a sheriff’s deputy, Drewery did not have access to the number of inmates he needed all the time. Jones and Drewery said they decided to work together and create the new solid waste program, so cleaning up roads and highways in Lafayette County would become more effective and efficient.
“I have been doing this for over three years, now, and there are certain high-visual areas that I continue to clean and keep in rotation,” Drewery said. “And now, we are going to be able to have people picking up waste everyday,” Drewery said.
Jones has hired two men who will work part-time for the new program. The three men will wear yellow highlighter t-shirts that read “Lafayette County Litter Crew” on the back, along with reflective vests. The crew will be using one truck, a trailer and trash grabbers for picking up debris. Drewery said part-time employers will be working at least 80 hours a month.
“I am happy to be making an impact on communities within Lafayette County,” Lafayette Litter Crew employee Deandre Patrick said. “It will be rewarding to see the effects we are making on our community because of this program. I plan on working as much as I can.”
There are roughly 20 workdays in a month due to weather and climate complications for the Lafayette Litter Crew. Patrick said on kickoff day, he alone picked up four bags of trash in a hour and a half time period.
“If I was to go out on a road that I cleaned up a few days ago, I promise you, I could pick as much garbage up on it right now as I did a few days ago,” Drewery said.
Most of the trash and litter comes from people throwing things out their car windows, according to Drewery.
Jones and Drewery want the new litter program to create awareness in the people of Lafayette County, in order to prevent solid waste from getting on highways and roads.
“Our goal is to start part-time and go full-time to keep the litter down and combat it a little at a time, so that it can eventually make a great impact on the county,” Jones said.
