Louisa County Supervisors decided recently something more had to be done about the ongoing litter problem in the county. Chairman Duane Adams named Supervisor Racheal Jones (Green Springs District) and Christopher C. McCotter (Cuckoo District) to a group that will try and come up with solutions to the continuous stream of trash that is accumulating along Louisa roadways.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) performs litter clean ups along the roads, however, due to a lack of funds the state agency ceased this activity in early March.
Citizen volunteers like the Louisa Clean group, headed by Lake Anna resident Jody Korman have been performing almost weekly trash clean-ups along major Lake Anna byways like Kentucky Springs Road, Moodytown Road, Bumpass Road, Eastham Road and Rt. 208, but the trash keeps coming.
The VDOT Adopt a Highway has also been re-emphasized in the Lake Anna area with several residents/businesses signing up. This program, however, only requires the adoptee to clean up the road twice a year and some high traffic road need litter pickup monthly.
“I believe the litter problem originates from three sources,” noted McCotter at a recent meeting of the group, “Contractors that have construction site litter blow out of their trucks, trash collectors/property managers that do not properly secure the trash they are taking to the landfill and people that purposely throw trash from their vehicles.”
McCotter asked Assistant County Administrator Coon to look into the possibility of hiring contractors to pick up along county roads. This is a possibility, however, the fee is $30/acre and would add up to over $10K. The group is looking into using some of building permit fees as well as a portion of the transient occupancy tax to cover this cost. Other options are also being considered.
Other ways McCotter noted the county can cut down on litter is having landfill staff note vehicles bringing property management trash to the landfill without a permit or a cover.
Korman provided the county with an example of a community clean up performed by the City of Suffolk dubbed the Great Suffolk Clean Up. The two-day cleanup campaign organized by Keep Suffolk Beautiful is aimed at encouraging individuals, families, businesses and organizations to pick a spot of their choosing in Suffolk and pick up litter.
Korman and her Louisa Clean crew are hoping the Louisa Supervisors will pass a resolution creating a Louisa Clean Week in conjunction with a similar county-wide clean-up effort lead by Louisa Clean.
Korman told Life & Times that so far, she and her volunteers have picked up over 100 bags of trash in 2024, well ahead of the pace of 2023 which had a total of 300+ bags.
