Early Saturday morning, the City of Augusta kickstarted Operation City Clean-Up, an initiative designed to improve the cleanliness of Augusta’s public spaces; The program is aiming to provide individuals with court-ordered community service requirements a way to consistently keep the city tidy while promoting rehabilitation.
Operation City Clean-Up will be held each Saturday.
Tackling litter one district at a time
Clean up efforts that morning were focused on The Harrisburg district, which encompasses the area of the city within 15th street, Walton Way, Heard Avenue, Milledge Road and the Augusta Canal.
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The next location, according to Mayor Garnett Johnson, has not yet been determined. Each district in Augusta will be tended to, he said, with priority given to areas with the highest clean up needs.
Promoting civic responsibility
“I’ve always said, I don’t see this as punishment,” Mayor Johnson said. “Keeping Augusta beautiful and clean and having a sense of pride in where we call home is very important, and I’m just glad to have these individuals that are helping today and will be helping moving forward.”
Among the individuals fulfilling service requirements was Syntavous Smith , who said he appreciated “helping the community, serving a good purpose.”
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The weekly cleaning session will last for four hours, and participants will earn double the normal amount of community service credits, leaving each four hour session with eight credits rather than only four.
Smith shared his thoughts on this credit system: “I think it’s a good purpose and a good way to get people to actually do it.”
Continuous clean-up
While there have been other clean up opportunities for community service hours in the past, this will be the first that is continuous, occurring each Saturday from here on out, per Mayor Johnson.
“As I was thinking and brainstorming with our team, we realized that there was a need to have a consistent, weekly cleanup done,” he said.
Mayor Johnson said he hopes these efforts will disuade passersby on city roads from littering.
“What’s most important is, hopefully we’re gaining ambassadors to tell others that as they’re driving along the roadways, not to throw litter out of the side of the road,” he said.
