‘There are a lot of areas that need help’: Operation Clean Sweep continues fighting war on litter

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - On Thursday, Albany residents said that they believe pride is showing in their neighborhood and they hope it will spread across the city.

Albany city leaders and utility crews continued their weekly project Operation Clean Sweep in Ward 4.

Albany Street supervisors said when they first started Operation Clean Sweep in Ward 4, they collected an average of 75 bags of litter. Now, they said that number has been cut in half with an average of 35 bags of litter being collected during the weekly project.

“It looks real nice. People take pride in their property around here,” Tony Garcas Jr., an Albany resident, said.

Daran Smith, another Albany resident, said he doesn’t see a problem with litter in his neighborhood with the help from the city.

“It helps keep the value of the property and it helps keep the area clean,” he said.

Operation Clean Sweep is a weekly community project that cleans parts of Albany. The improvement in the litter problem across Ward 4 is something Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful Executive Director Jwanna Washington said she’s seeing in her community appearance index. On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being there are obvious signs of litter in a specific area, Ward 4 scored 1.05.

“Not to say that litter is not a problem in Albany because we do know that litter anywhere is unsightly, it is a problem but if we can do the community appearance index and specifically say on this particular street in this particular block there is a problem with the litter, we can focus our efforts,” she said.

While Ward 4 is seeing improvements in the war against litter, some residents say that there are other parts throughout Albany that need the city’s attention.

“Albany itself, you know there are a lot of areas that do need help,” Smith said. “Low poverty, you know, people don’t do the same because I guess they don’t own those places, but if you own it, you get out here and you help you know beautify and help get it clean”

Next Thursday, clean-up efforts will continue in the areas of Marbury Lane, Lullwater Road and Flamingo Lane. City officials say while the project is making progress, they still need your help to keep trash off the streets.

“It’s really just a way for us to kind of raise the standard and raise the appearance and just kind of put a focused effort. So really over the course of six months to a year, every neighborhood will be impacted by this program,” Chad Warbingotn, Ward 4 City Commissioner, said.

Warbington added that it will take the whole community to combat the litter problem.

“We do have our good and struggling areas of our city from that standpoint, and so really it’s all about volunteer, about citizens being engaged. I think once people start to see the appearance improve, it encourages people to get involved,” he said.

If anyone has concerns about litter in their area or needs any other city service, you can call 311, which is the city of Albany’s customer service line.

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