Residents of Tilden Township and surrounding areas are offering their services in keeping the roadsides litter free.
The Tilden Environmental Advisory Council discussed the newly created Adopt a Road project at the Tilden Township Municipal Building during a meeting at 7 p.m. on Feb. 6.
Township supervisor, Gene Schappell, shared the project’s mission, “To gather groups of people for the purpose of picking up trash throughout designated areas in the township in order to keep Tilden Township a beautiful place to live and work,” said Schappell.
The project is being funded by state grants.
According to Schappell, in the past, the majority of the litter along township roads has been beer cans and bottles. The annual cleanup on Earth Day simply is not enough to keep up with the litter being produced in the area.
“What happens is that when we do it in April, the vegetation just covers a lot of it so a lot is missed and year after year this happens,” said Schappell. “In the beginning of March and early April, there are some nice days. So instead of having the whole group go out at one time, which is difficult because everyone has their own schedules, so we decided to come up with Adopt a Road.”
Volunteers will be responsible for one to two mile sections of roadway.
The township has compiled a list of locations that appear to be in the most need of attention. Areas still available for adoptions are Pine Road from Laurel to Holley Drive; Bern Road from Ash to Bachmoll Road; Fisher Dam Road; St. Michael’s Road and Fox Road; and Mountain Road from Cabela’s Drive to Pine Road.
The township also encourages all those interested to suggest an area in need of attention.
The project will start no earlier than March 17 to allow for the purchase of materials and finalization of details.
All volunteers will complete an application, which is available at the Tilden Township Municipal Building.
Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and must have a waiver signed by a parent. Volunteers will commit to pick up trash in their designated area(s) at least twice a year, or more if necessary.
Schappell created a working example of how the program will operate. Volunteers will find a storage bin in their designated location, filled with trash bags, gloves, vests, trash grabbers and safety signs to alert cars to the clean up crew in the area.
There will also be cards available to sign and record the location, the start time and the finish time of the clean up and the number of filled trash bags to be collected by the Environmental Advisory Committee.
The card will then be returned to a mail slot located at the entrance to the Tilden Township Municipal Building to alert the Environmental Advisory Committee that the bags are ready to be collected.
“Tilden is a beautiful place. We have the commercial establishments and then we have the country sides and you can go right from the commercial areas to the country without blinking an eye,” said Schappell.
Any person of a group interested in adopting a roadway is encouraged to contact the Tilden Township Municipal Building or township manager Cheryl Haus at 610-562-7410.
