Crews working to cleanup the roadway.

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Wayne Allen

Common Staff Writer

The Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District (LSSWMD) in collaboration with Portsmouth Municipal Court, the village of New Boston and the city of Portsmouth helped to clean the right side of the west bound lane of Gallia Street, among other spaces last week.

With the help of some community service workers from Portsmouth Municipal Court, they cleaned the area between Daymar College and the Vern Riffe School.

Kyle McCain, with Portsmouth Municipal Court described the area as an, “explosion of garbage,” before it was cleaned.

“We had to do something. What does this (roadway) say to people coming from other areas, driving through? What does this say about the community? Is this conducive to anyone wanting to bring a business to town,” said Dan Palmer, Director of LSSWMD. “By doing this we hope we can instill pride and respect from motorists and residences for this area.”

According to McCain over three pickup trucks and one dump truck were filled with litter during their efforts.

“No one entity does this alone. If Judge (Steven) Mowery and Judge (Russell) Kegley did not provide us with the community service workers we would not be able to do this. It’s all of us working together to make our community look better,” Palmer said.

Palmer said this effort last week was apart of an ongoing effort in partnership with Portsmouth Municipal Court to cleanup city, village, county and township roadways.

McCain said since he has been coordinating this program for Portsmouth Municipal Count last April, community service workers along with others have picked up an estimated 2,000-3,000 tons of garbage off area roadways.

“There is still a lot of work to be done and we are still willing to do it,” McCain said.

Among the things discovered by the crew was a large pile of roofing shingles and suspected meth making material along with several needles and drug abuse instruments.

McCain said efforts are under way to plan an area wide cleanup. He said in an effort to continue the momentum a cleanup has been scheduled for May 25th within the city of Portsmouth.

Palmer said May 25th will be a day in which residents of Portsmouth can cleanup their property and bring the items to dumpsters to be disposed of.

McCain said anyone wishing to help with the cleanup can call the Portsmouth Municipal Court Probation Department at 740-353-7367.

Palmer reiterated that if someone sees someone else open dumping call the LSSWMD and take down the license plate number of the person(s) open dumping and they will investigate.

For more information about the Lawrence Scioto County Solid Waste Management District visit their website at www.lsswmd.org

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-1151, or tallen@civitasmedia.com