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Probationers hit the roads to pick up trash
"The Board of Supervisors was looking for a cost-effective way to do litter control," said Tom Pavelko, the director of the Office of Adult Court Services. "I thought (a program coordinated by) our department would be ideal."After all, Pavelko's agency has been "brokering court-ordered community service" for about 15 years.
He explained that in some cases, a judge will require someone to do some sort of community service while they
are on probation. Rather than allowing each person to decide how to fulfill that obligation, the Office of Court Services sends people out to about 30 different sites, including the county landfills and the SPCA.
The trash pickup program began Jan. 8.
"We don't want to send people out when it's less than 40 degrees, so they've only been out four times (so far)," Pavelko said.
Once it gets warmer, he said the pickup crews will go out for a few hours per day at least three days per week and on Saturdays. The program will continue throughout the year, weather permitting.
Pavelko said 22 people are already participating in the program. "John Doe" is one of them.
"I've been surprised at how much trash we've found and the kind of stuff we've found," Doe said last week. "It's obvious that some people get out of their cars and purposefully put the stuff on the side of the road." Some
trash gets dumped on the roads near the county landfills, Doe added.
Pavelko said the pickup crews, which are supervised by a probation officer, so far have removed all sorts of things -including tires, wood pallets,
and even furniture - that have been discarded along county roads. Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) workers later take the collected debris to the landfill, Pavelko explained.
In addition to transporting the refuse, VDOT provides safety vests and trash bags for the clean up crews. The county has contributed funds for the probation officer who supervises the program and a van to transport the cleanup crews.
The investment already seems to be paying off, according to both Pavelko and Doe.
"It didn't take long for residents to catch on to what we¹re doing," Pavelko said. "The response has been very positive."
Doe said that one woman approached him and shook his hand while he was picking up trash one day.
"It made me feel good," Doe said, adding that he will now think twice before he casually tosses something out of his car while he's driving down the road. "Some people will just go through the program. But some of us will get something out of it," he added.
Cedar Run District Supervisor Ray Graham is enthusiastic about the program.
"We want to make sure our community stays clean and neat, so this was an opportunity that couldn't be missed," Graham said. "I'm thrilled to death that (these crews) are going out to clean up our roadsides."
Graham said the program is a perfect compliment to other trash removal programs, including the Adopt-a-Highway program and another program
implemented by Fauquier County Sheriff Charlie Ray Fox Jr. in 2004. The sheriff's program uses inmates to pick up litter from county roads.
Anyone who sees trash that needs to be picked up along county roads can call the Litter Hotline at (540) 349-1871.
E-mail the reporter: abogdanovic@timespapers.com
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