43
Entities team up to make city cleaner
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown, Mahoning County and the Ohio Department of Transportation will better coordinate litter cleanup efforts to be more efficient and effective.
Also, city police officers are starting to crack down on litterbugs.
On Friday, officials from the city, county and ODOT announced the effort to make Youngstown cleaner.
“One of the problems we’ve had in the city for a very long time [is] litter,” said Jennifer Jones, coordinator of Youngstown’s litter-control and recycling program. “It’s not just an environmental concern, but an economic concern. Businesses look at the cleanliness of a city. If we have litter, we adversely impact businesses. It also affects the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”
The city, county — the sheriff’s department and Green Team — and ODOT will keep in weekly contact to discuss cleanup work done by each entity to avoid duplication and better coordinate the work.
“We’ll still spend the same amount of time on cleanups, but we’ll be able to keep up with it because now we’re communicating,” Jones said. “We weren’t talking to one another. Now, we’ll be more efficient and won’t step on each other’s toes.”
Mayor Charles Sammarone said, “It’s always good to put the different government entities together. We can do a lot better working together than doing what we’ve been doing.”
ODOT spends about $160,000 annually cleaning litter on state and federal roads in Mahoning County, said Tony Urankar, the agency’s District 4 deputy director.
“We’re very excited with the partnership,” he said. “We look forward to working with the other agencies to curb litter.”
Youngstown police officers finished training earlier this week on how to better find those who are littering, said police Chief Rod Foley.
“When we’re out driving on patrol, we’re looking for blighted property and those littering,” he said. “We’ll see more [litter] citations written.”