COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs plans to launch a new initiative to crackdown on litter around the city.
"Litter around creeks and bike paths," said Thomas Arezeder, Colorado Springs resident.
"I've noticed some in fountain along the river where the homeless people live," said Kully Smith, Divide resident.
According to the city, litter is an on-going problem. They've gotten over 1,000 comments from residents to address trash along medians and roadways.
"We have initiatives to clean up once in a while, Spring and Fall cleaning, but when you look in a few weeks it's littered again," said Arezeder.
"Keep it Clean COS" will be made up of three components to help reduce litter.
"First, we're dedicating additional funding to existing cleanup efforts. We're shifting $2.7 million from the city reserves to purchase new street sweepers, spray trucks, vacuum trucks, and to hire additional manpower to attack the trash problem on our medians, streets, and other public right of ways. Second, we're putting out a community challenge, to businesses and private businesses alike to clean up private property. To secure trash and be a good steward of our city's beauty and aesetics," said Mayor John Suthers.
Adding to that is a challenge for residential and commercial properties to keep their premises clean, and a new city award, the “Keep It Clean COS Spirit of the Springs Award,” which will be given to a resident or volunteer organization each year that has made a significant contribution to keeping the city clean.
"Colorado Springs covers a vast amount of infrastructure. 200 square miles in our city, we have over 62000 lane miles of roadway, and 4000 of curb and gutter, and millions of square feet of median to address. Initiatives such as 2C and PPRTA has served us well in maintaining and expanding our infrastructure, but the general upkeep and aesthetics work has been a lesser focus, especially in lesser years," said Travis Easton, Director of Public Works.
He says the main focus will be the medians and other roadways.
If you've ever wanted to name a street sweeper, the city has an opportunity for you. To celebrate their arrival, the city is asking residents to submit names for one of the new street sweepers, which can be done on the campaign's website.
The campaign website also features a nomination form for the yearly award, community events, and a place where you can report trash and litter to the city, among other things.
Mayor Suthers hopes that Colorado Springs residents will join him in his "obsessive dislike for litter" in this campaign.
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