OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Pattie Little, District 4 Oktibbeha County supervisor, said over the last year she noticed a growing problem when driving on county roads.
Whether in ditches, rivers or at four-way intersections, it seems everywhere she looks, people have strewn garbage.
Little said the problem is nothing new for the county, but it has become untenable.
“You’ll find fast-food bags. There’s empty beer cans, empty beer bottles, gum wrappers (and) candy wrappers. Sometimes it looks like somebody just opened their trash bag and just dumped it,” Little said. “… It happens all the time.”
After watching an Oktibbeha Board of Supervisors meeting earlier this year where Little voiced those concerns, Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said she felt compelled to reach out and brainstorm a solution.
Those discussions became the “Fight Dirty” campaign, a joint effort between Starkville and Oktibbeha County seeking to raise awareness and promote events to bolster local anti-littering efforts, a Tuesday press release from the city said.
“The goal is to raise greater awareness and to help people understand that … they’re part of the problem and part of the solution,” Spruill said. “… And then encouraging them to be mindful of things … (like) when you throw something in the back of your pickup truck and drive 50 mph, it’s probably not going to stay there.”
Alongside a future social media awareness campaign, Spruill and Little have discussed other efforts the initiative could focus on for a more hands-on impact year-round, Spruill said.
Some of those efforts, from the city side, could include organizing community cleanup days with groups like the Starkville Rotary Club, along with Mississippi State University fraternities and sororities.
It could also include expanding existing programs like Get Swept Up!, which is coordinated by the Greater Starkville Development Partnership as a volunteer day to pick up litter and clean up yard waste before the first MSU football game of the season.
“I do think that’s not a bad idea to do (clean up efforts) periodically throughout the year,” Spruill said. “… But that’s a matter of coordinating and encouraging.”
Little said from the county’s side, those efforts may look a bit different because of how large and spread out the clean-up efforts would be.
While she isn’t sure yet what exactly county efforts would look like, Little believes it could be a benefit to speak with city leaders from Maben and Sturgis to get additional perspectives on what efforts are needed in the county.
“Right now, anything and everything’s on the table,” she said.
While keeping the city and county clean is a “common sense” idea, Spruill said it also carries secondary benefits for promoting the area as both a tourism destination and a place people want to move to.
“From my perspective, the county and the city go hand-in-hand,” Spruill said. “… Nobody knows exactly where the city limits are as they’re coming in. So the more we can do to keep the county clean, the better it is for the city and the more we can do to keep the city clean, the better it is for the county.”
While still in the developmental stages, Little said she hopes the initiative can begin promoting awareness material as soon as June.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
