By Malcolm Butler
Litter is an issue in Lincoln Parish.
In fact some of the numbers are staggering, in a not-so-positive way.
However, this Saturday in conjunction with the state’s Keep Louisiana Beautiful “Love the Boot Week” a strong turnout is expected from all corners of Lincoln Parish in an effort to team up and clean up our parish.
It will be a group effort to trash the trash in our area as local governmental agencies, civic groups, university students, high school students and other residents come together.
And according to Lincoln Parish Sheriff Stephen Williams, there is plenty of garbage to clean up.
“I think this Saturday’s event is very important,” said Williams. “The more the merrier. We have a beautiful parish, and we are making every effort that we can to clean it up and make it something we are all proud of.”
So how big of an issue is litter within our Parish?
Williams said that the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office has two litter patrols that work each week picking up trash within the parish — one that works 40 hours a week and a second that works two days a week. These patrols are made up of work release inmates from the Lincoln Parish Detention Center.
He said on average each patrol picks up between 800 and 1,200 pounds of litter per patrol per day. Williams said if you extrapolate the number of pounds of litter by the miles within the parish, Lincoln Parish has around 360,000 pounds of trash within it’s parish lines.
“The more people we can get involved helping clean up our parish, the better off we will be,” said Williams. “We want people to take pride in their community again.”
Lincoln Parish Police juror Logan Hunt said that the entire police jury has made garbage cleanup a priority and he is eager to see the impact of Saturday’s event as well as what it could mean moving forward.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the collaboration between all the groups and we look forward to the results of this partnership and everyone’s efforts,” said Hunt. “I think this will make a significant impact in cleaning up our community. I hope this has an on-going impact and brings an awareness to the need and changes the culture of our community when it comes to keeping it beautiful.”
According to Hunt, both Louisiana Tech and Grambling State have been eager to participate in this endeavor.
Hunt said that the police jury and sheriff’s office met with representatives from both Louisiana Tech University and Grambling State University in regards to the event.
“We wanted to see how we could partner together,” said Hunt. “We have a huge need and they have have a lot of human capitol. We think this is an easy partnership. Both Tech and Grambling have been very eager to be a part of this.”
Lincoln Parish Police juror Greg “Big Coach” Williams represents District 1 and said he is excited to see everyone working together.
“I am excited about it,” said Williams. “All of us are doing this together. I think last year Lincoln Parish was voted as one of the worst cities in state of Louisiana in regards to litter. So that got us excited and in a competitive mode. We want to change that. We met with Grambling State University and the City of Grambling and the mayor … this is really a community effort. We want to work together for a change. This is one of our big focuses of the police jury, and I am excited to see everyone working together.”
Dickie Crawford, Vice President of Student Advancement at Louisiana Tech, said he thinks the Love the Boot initiative is the perfect partnership for an already three-decade long Big Event that the University holds each year.
“We have been doing the Big Event for almost 30 years now,” said Crawford. “It’s been an Student Government Association (SGA) sponsored event for all those years. I think it’s a special event when 2000 students show up on a Saturday morning at the Tech football stadium and go out and do community service and give back to our community.
“We had a meeting with police jury and sheriff’s office, and our SGA thought it was a great idea to participate in this parish-wide cleanup. In the past few years we have more students participate in the Big Event than we have work sites. So this initiative will allow about 500 to 800 of our students will help with the Love the Boot project.
“Our students will get to meet people within the community and vice versa. It’s a great town and gown event for us. It’s really a win win for everybody. It speaks to the culture of the University. Our students and our University values that service mentality.”
Lincoln Parish Police Jury Administrator Courtney Hall said that anyone interested in participating can contact their office and ask for Jeri Lynn Webb at 318-513-6200. Hall said there are a limited number of supplies, including gloves, vests, and garbage bags, that can be provided.
Hall also said residents can sign up for it by clicking HERE.
“It’s the first time there has been this big of a collaboration within the parish to fight litter,” said Hall. “It is exciting to have so many people get involved. This will have a huge impact. We have to look beyond this. Once we get it cleaned up we have to keep it that way. That’s our next focus. How can we maintain the momentum.”
