Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 14, 1991 TAG: 9104120518
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARIANNA FILLMORE SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
These volunteers - young and old, students and retirees, families, neighbors and friends, people of all economic and social strata - will be participating in the county's eighth annual Broomin' and Bloomin' cleanup.
The event, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is the result of a yearlong organizational effort by volunteers of the Montgomery County Improvement Council. It will involve more than 100 civic, social and church groups, including fraternities and sororities from Virginia Tech and Radford University, Scout troops, businesses and schools.
Sixty Adopt-a-Highway groups in the county and more than 30 Adopt-a-Spot groups in Blacksburg and Christiansburg also will clean their areas that day.
Several illegal dumps are pinpointed for cleanup.
"It is impressive to see how many roads and areas are being covered," said Tom Greene, who is in charge of mapping for Broomin' and Bloomin. "In fact, we're running out of ones close in."
From experience he has learned that a team of four or five volunteers can pick up two or three miles during the four-hour period.
As they collect the trash, the volunteers will place recyclable materials in separate bags identified with blue tape. A recycling crew, headed by Jim Sorenson, will pick up these bags while personnel and trucks from the Virginia Department of Transportation and area businesses collect the non-recyclable trash.
Recyclables will go to the county recycling center on U.S. 460 and County Drive. All other refuse will go to the county landfill.
Alison Limoges, co-chairman of Broomin' and Bloomin', said the project is "certainly massive in scope, and the benefits are immediately obvious. It's very impressive."
Co-chairman Bill Swain said the event involves "a lot of time, work and effort, but when it comes about, there's such a good feeling of accomplishment."
Many private companies as well as several government organizations and Tech are donating trucks, heavy equipment and personnel. Blacksburg Transit is furnishing buses to carry volunteers to and from cleanup sites.
Many businesses have given money for supplies and for the Bloomin' and Broomin' T-shirts to be given to all participants. Most area supermarkets and fast-food chains, several major restaurants and Tech are donating food and drinks for a picnic after the cleanup. The Roanoke Times & World-News is picking up the tab on some of the supplies.
Virginia Tech's APO organization has solicited donations, the Hospitality Club will set up and serve, and the Blacksburg Jaycees will cook. Live music, softball, and volleyball will round out the afternoon.
Organizers of Broomin' and Bloomin' expect the results of this year's event to equal or surpass last year's. Last April, despite a rainy day, the cleanup yielded 311,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from hundreds of miles of roads, nine public parks, two miles of riverbank and five illegal dumps. About $29,000 in cash, goods, and services, including $900 worth of food, were donated.
Tom Loflin, publicity chairman, said the council "is essentially all volunteers, whereas many counties, particularly in Northern Virginia, have several paid staff members who work on projects like this year round."
Bob Blanton, coordinator of the improvement council, told two success stories from last year that he found particularly gratifying.
"The residents of Sugar Grove on Route 674 outside of Christiansburg were so intense on getting the area cleaned up, they carried it over to Sunday," he said.
And across the county in the Prices Fork community, more than 40 volunteers from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant picked up 11 truckloads of trash, including 13 tires, three sofas and three refrigerators, along the two miles of Prices Station Road leading to gate 4 of the plant.
That stretch has since been adopted by Breskell, Inc., subcontractors out of Roanoke, who will have employees out on Saturday.
"The county is cleaner than it has been in years, but there are still some problems with illegal dumping," Blanton said.
He hopes "the sheer number of volunteers with red vests out there along the roadways will be an education to the public on the importance of not littering, of using Dumpsters and landfills."
by CNB