Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson says that it is time to remind both residents and visitors of why Augusta is called the “Garden City” and will host an ambitious county-wide roadway cleanup effort on Saturday, March 25.
Volunteers are asked to roll up their sleeves and meet at the Municipal Building, located at 535 Telfair Street, at 9 a.m. where they will collect supplies before going out into the community.
The supplies provided by the Utilities Department will be gloves and trash bags. Johnson urges volunteers to wear a brightly colored shirt or safety vest if they have one since they will be working on the roadsides.
“One of my major initiatives is to clean up Augusta. If you drive around Augusta, you see litter everywhere. We need to take pride in our city, and that starts with cleaning up the trash,” Johnson said.
The city is routinely criticized for holding a massive push to clean the city up just before Masters Tournament week; however, Johnson insists his initiative is different and not geared just to wow the international crowds visiting for the golf tournament.
“This won’t be a one-off or annual thing, we are going to have these cleanups quarterly,” Johnson said.
Rather than focus on the Washington Road corridor, the cleanup will span all ten districts of the city, Johnson says.
The locations chosen for Saturday’s event are Lake Olmstead, Damascus Road, Powell Road, Morgan Road, Lumpkin Road at Old McDuffie Road, Rosier Road at Windsor Spring Road, Boy Scout Road at Skinner Mill Road, Hephzibah McBean Road, RA Dent Boulevard and Horseshoe Road, according to a press release sent from the Mayor’s Office.
The mayor also says that he will be meeting soon with the Marshal’s Department to discuss litter law enforcement, stating that it does not make sense for volunteers to spend their day off cleaning the city only to have the litter return the next week.
The event will conclude at noon with a volunteer appreciation cookout in the Municipal Building parking lot beginning at 1 p.m.
“People are already asking where to sign up, they are excited. It is a great time to be living in the city of Augusta, I know that great things are on the horizon,” Johnson said.
