Cleaning blitz initiative begins in Lawrence

LAWRENCE As a part of an initiative the mayor has dubbed Clean Lawrence, a street cleaning blitz is underway. For the next 90 days, 25 temporary Department of Public Works employees will be walking through the city picking up trash and talking to residents about proper disposal procedures.

The city will spend $195,000 to pay the laborers $15 an hour for their work. They are on the street sporting lime green shirts and traffic vests from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., picking up trash from areas of the city that go unattended. Department of Public Works director John Isensee said the teams will start downtown and work into more residential parts of the city, focusing on alleyways, vacant lots and gutters. He said he is hoping to keep the gateways to the city clean and then work inward, while accommodating requests from residents.

The move is not just for the sake of beautification, but could save the city money in the long run, according to Isensee. Lawrence has a contract with a private company to have waste hauled out of the city. For trash removal, the department pays $68 per ton. But for recyclables, hauling is free.

If you go around the gutter line, and you take all the trash there, and you put it in a bag, youll find that its all recyclable, he said. Bottles, cans, cups, paper litter. Those are standard items. All of those things are recyclable.

The team has been given an eye-catching uniform so that residents will be encouraged to ask them questions, Isensee said. He and Moises Brea, who coordinates the recycling program, hope to impart residents with an understanding that it is partly their responsibility to keep garbage off the streets.

Weve also strategically placed barrels in areas where parks are, in high traffic areas, Brea said. Were trying to produce an attitude shift to get people to start making it a habit.

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Cleaning blitz initiative begins in Lawrence