At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, 19 diversion program participants began lining up at the Wayne National Forest to begin a countywide cleanup.
The members of the Athens County Empowerment Diversion Program served in the forest area along with Lodi Township and Alexander Township to “legally dispose of tires and trash,” according to a news release from Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn’s office.
The participants loaded trucks to haul tires to the townships. Six participants hauled tires to Lodi Township, nine at Wayne National Forest and four to Alexander Township, Meg Saunders, assistant Athens County prosecutor said in an email.
Each location had one Athens County Prosecutor’s office employee there to oversee the work being done.
“Participating in a countywide cleanup is a great example of one of the many goals of the newly formed Community Justice Initiative,” Blackburn said in the release. “Each individual who participated in the cleanup will receive hours towards completion of their community service and is one step closer to successful completion of the program.”
According to a previous
Post
article, tire dumping has been a problem in Athens for the past 30 to 50 years. Dumping tires is a state crime because tires are considered solid waste.
Kathy Jacobson, RN steward of the Broadwell Hill Learning Center and Sustainable Stewardship Station, said in the previous article that the problem could exist locally because some Athens residents fail to properly dispose of their tires when getting a tire change on their cars to avoid paying a fee, which can be expensive.
“At the end of the day, there were approximately 3,000 tires brought to the three different locations,” said Mike Cooper of the Environmental Health Department in the Athens City-County Health Department, in the release.
Cooper, County Commissioner Chris Chmiel and trustees of Trimble Township, Alexander Township and Lodi Township hope to make the cleanup an annual event.
“This goes to show that when agencies work together, we can continue to make Athens County beautiful,” said Jay Barrett, director of outreach at Blackburn’s office, in the release. “I am proud of the work that the (Athens County Empowerment) Diversion participants put into making this such a success.”
According to the release, an information meeting on the Community Justice Initiative will be held at the Athens Recreation Center from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 21.
kf398711@ohiou.edu
@KellyPFisher
