Scarborough will soon become one of a few towns in the state that has its own road adoption program.
The program allows groups or organizations to volunteer their time cleaning up litter on their adopted road. The groups would receive credit for their efforts by having a sign posted identifying them.
Organizers are now putting the finishing touches on the program including finalizing an agreement form, procuring street signs, and developing a list of roads and streets that can be adopted. They expect to have the program running sometime next month.
Sarah Wojcoski, Scarborough’s recycling coordinator, developed the concept here, basing it on similar programs around the nation.
Unlike those programs, volunteers participating in Scarborough will not be required to work on busy roads. Instead, Wojcoski expects the road list now being compiled will mostly include residential roads, “roads you would feel confident walking down in the first place,” she said.
There are groups and organizations in town that already volunteer their time picking up litter. Public Works also picks up trash on Route 1 near the marsh and once a year there is a large cleanup at the town’s beaches and around the marsh.
However, often times these groups use their own resources for bags and other materials necessary for cleanup, Wojcoski said. Groups participating in the adopt-a-road program will have all of the necessarily materials provided by the public works department, including safety vests and road signs alerting motorists to the activity.
“There’s not necessarily a trash problem (in Scarborough),” Wojcoski said. “People litter because they see no responsibility for it.”
She said people might think twice about littering if they knew their neighbor was going to be outside a few times a year picking up after them.
There are some fairly straightforward rules regarding the program, Wojcoski said. Cleanups must be done during the day and all volunteers have to be working on the same side of the road. Additionally, she would like to see the volunteers clean up two or three times a year, and each group must volunteer their time for two years.
The minimum age for participants is 8 and with groups of children ages 16 or less, there would have to be one adult for every eight kids.
Saco currently has an adopt-a-road program that started in 1992, which has not received much interest. According to Wojcoski, who also works as that city’s recycling coordinator, just five groups have participated.
She is hoping for a better response here, in part because some groups are already doing similar work.
Wojcoski is planning on presenting her proposal to various groups in town who may be interested, such as the Conservation Commission and high school students.
For more information contact Wojcoski at 282-1552 or swojcoski@sacomaine.org.
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