Carroll County hopes volunteers will pick up paper, cans, bottles and other trash on county roads with the launch of its Adopt-a-Road program Thursday.
Signs with the individual?s, group?s or family?s name will be placed on a mile-long section of one of 21 different roads the county?s Bureau of Road Operations selected.
“When people start to see signs with group or family names, be thankful, but please look out for people out on the road,” said Public Works Director J. Michael Evans, who made the announcement at a commissioners? meeting as part of the county?s “Cleaner Carroll” initiative.
“Wave and slow down.”
Benton Watson, chief of the bureau of roads, said he selected 50 road segments along a little more than 68 miles of roads from Obrecht Road in Sykesville, to Deer Park Road in Finksburg, to Gorsuch Road in Westminster.
Fast-food wrappers are the most prevalent form of litter, Watson said, but occasionally people drop off old refrigerators, tires, washers and dryers.
He said roads were not chosen based on which were dirtiest, but with two other criteria in mind: convenience for volunteers throughout the county and safety.
After brief training, participants will receive brightly colored hats and safety vests to wear, according to information provided by county spokeswoman Vivian Laxton.
Until now, trustees, or inmates from the county detention center who were screened for the task, would occasionally clean up litter along county roads.
And while their help was appreciated, still more assistance in trash removal is needed, Watson said.
Evans said the commissioners asked him in 2005 to look into starting this program, which was based on the state?s Adopt-A-Highway program, where volunteers remove rubbish from Carroll?s state highways.
