Adopt-a-Highway program keeping Michigan cleaner

Adopt-a-Highway program keeping Michigan cleaner
By MATT FURST
Capital News Service
Friday, November 21, 2002

LANSING -- The Michigan Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program continues to keep Michigan roads cleaner, officials say.

The program started in 1990 and saves the state an estimated $1 million annually, said Brenda Peek, MDOT metro communications specialist.

Peek said the program is now responsible for picking up litter along 6,070 miles of highways, filling more than 30,000 trash bags a year.

"The state could never do what the volunteers do," Peek said. "They are invaluable."

The Adopt-a-Highway program relies upon volunteers, who are assigned to two-mile stretches of road, Peek said. The volunteers receive trash bags from MDOT and have designated cleanup days three times a year.

Each two-mile stretch has three or four people working on it at a time, Peek said.

"They give our state a first-class look," Peek said.

Volunteers can sign up by contacting MDOT by phone or on its Web site, Peek said.

"The volunteers are the heart and soul of the program," Peek said. "The state would probably spend millions of dollars trying to do what the volunteers do."

More than 300 people have adopted miles of highways in the Upper Peninsula, said Jim Bellinger, MDOT administrator in Escanaba.

Bellinger is in charge of the program throughout four U.P. counties: Alger, Delta, Menominee and Schoolcraft.

"The program has done real well in the community," Bellinger said. "It's a great cost savings and our roads look a lot better."

Hannahville Tribal Police Chief Thomas Hayward agreed.

Hayward and other officers joined the program about three years ago, Hayward said. He finds an assortment of trash along the roads. Pop bottles, cigarette boxes, cans and diapers are fairly common.

"It gets frustrating picking up after other people," Hayward said. "It makes it all worth it, though, when someone drives by and says they appreciate us."

Hayward said that there are no more cleanup days this year in the Upper Peninsula and he'll have to start all over when the snow melts.