BUCKEYE CHUCK PREDICTS AN EARLY SPRING!!!

 

Today is Groundhog's Day, and Buckeye Chuck did not see his shadow.  That means an early spring in Ohio!!!  Yay!

I drove to Columbus to see my son and think about my trash plan today.

As I drove down 71 and went west on 270, I saw so much trash, but I know Keep Columbus Beautiful and the City of Columbus have a good plan for picking up trash on the freeways.  And I'm sure residents of Columbus and surrounding suburbs have a plan for keeping their neighborhoods clean.

So I thought about what I want to do in Akron.

Here is a map that shows the area I'm focused on.  I live in Firestone Park, but I have ventured north to the 76 freeway, east to South Arlington, south to Waterloo Road and west to Manchester Road.  Altogether, it's about 16.8 square miles of neighborhoods and businesses.

Over the winter, people continue to litter, but the snow hides it, so you don't know how bad it is until a big thaw.  (Like today.)

I created this chart to hang in my kitchen.  It has all the main streets I'm going to clean again.  I will put the date on a line, and it will take me six days @ three hours a day to clean up Waterloo Road.

It will take me 47 days to pick up everything on these main roads.  There are hundreds of streets within these main roads, but I don't need to worry about those.  My neighbors will keep their streets clean now.

When I drive around and see all the trash, do I think the two years I spent picking up 833,000 pieces of trash was a waste of time?  Oh my goodness no!  I learned so much from this experience.  

I learned that the City of Akron is truly beautiful when it's clean.

I learned that everybody appreciates what I'm doing.  Not everybody spends the time I have picking up trash, but they appreciate how nice it looks when it's clean.

I learned that there is danger to our children and pets on our streets and sidewalks from broken glass to pests, from needles to germs.  I know that we are the only ones who can keep our neighborhoods clean.  Keep Akron Beautiful has their hands full picking up tires and cleaning entrance and exit ramps.  The Akron Police Department has their hands full catching criminals and responding to auto accidents.  If we don't pick up trash, it won't get picked up, and it won't go away.  It is up to us.

I don't expect anyone to invest in a trash cart and spend hours each day picking up trash.  Not at all.  All I am hoping for is that you pick up trash when you see it.  That's all.

And if you see broken glass, call me on my cell phone 330-419-1166, and I'll go sweep it up.

Now that I know we are going to have an early spring, I'll reach my one-million-piece goal by the end of April, when all the organizations are thinking about a clean up.  Once the main streets are clean, keeping it clean is not hard at all.