Letter: ‘Everyone can be part of the solution’

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To the editor:

As a member of the Keep Brown County Beautiful board, I was thrilled to read Ben Kibbey’s “Trash and Consequences” article in the Jan. 4 Democrat.

I couldn’t help but imagine what Brown County roads would look like if it were not for the Faggs and the other Adopt-a-Road volunteers. In addition, there are individuals and families who keep the trash picked up around their property. Brown County is very fortunate to have Phil Stephens and the entire staff of the recycling center who are out there hauling away litter that is too big to put in a trash bag.

Even with all these caring and conscientious citizens, Keep Brown County Beautiful still spent $4,200 since last fall paying people to pick up litter.

Keep Brown County Beautiful grew out of the Picture Perfect project, which was part of the Brown County Garden Club. The Picture Perfect money came from grants from the Brown County Foundation, the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the town of Nashville and individual donors.

We were proud of our litter pick-up program but also frustrated by the fact that we were spending the same amount of money year after year. That was the reason it was decided that we should become an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, where we could learn ways to discourage littering through education and beautification projects in addition to just picking up trash. This will be our added focus in 2017.

If you wish to help with our efforts or learn more, you can email us at [email protected]; write to us at KBCB Inc., P.O. Box 115, Nashville, IN 47448; or connect with us on Facebook.

Every resident of Brown County deserves to enjoy our beautiful surroundings without having it ruined with plastic and paper bags, Styrofoam containers, liquor bottles, tires and on and on and on.

We also have a financial reason for keeping our scenic area clean. Much of our income comes from tourists and they come here to focus on beauty, not trash.

Maybe you can’t adopt a road, have the time to pick up trash thrown on your property or donate money, but we can all take the time to throw our trash in a trash receptacle and not toss it out the car window. If you would do this, you would be a big part of the solution to our county’s litter problem.

Mary Ann Cline, Brown County

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