ONLEY, Va. (Delmarva Now) -- The Sponsor-a-Road program on the Eastern Shore of Virginia is underway, with three initial sponsors: Southside Harley-Davidson, the Eastern Shore Watersheds Roundtable and Tyson Foods.
The hope is that more sponsors will sign on so that more miles of road can be cleaned of litter on a regular basis.
“We’re committed to investing in the communities where we live and work,” said Dale Cook, human resources manager at Tyson Foods.
“The opportunity to be part of a new initiative to help keep Virginia’s roads clean was exciting and we’re proud to be one of the first to participate,” Cook said.
The program involves businesses or other entities paying a monthly fee to sponsor professional roadway litter removal services.
"The sponsors pay a set price per month, and the company sends a crew," said Shannon Alexander, Coastal Resources program manager at the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission.
Sponsors are acknowledged with blue signs posted on Route 13. Each sign indicates about one mile of roadway, on both sides of the road, is being cleaned up, although not actually where the sign is posted.
It was decided to put the signs on the more heavily traveled highway, for greater visibility, rather than on the back roads where the cleanup work is being done.
On the Eastern Shore, the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission contracted with a company called Adopt-a-Highway Litter Removal Service of America Inc., with support from the Virginia Department of Transportation and Waste Watchers of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
The highway department issues the permit to clean along the roads.
The highway department is viewing the Eastern Shore as a sort of testing ground for the program, with the possibility of extending it in the future to other parts of Virginia.
"This is a way to save the taxpayer dollars," Alexander said, adding, "We're not the only area that has this issue."
Employees of the litter removal service are cleaning up back roads, starting in the northernmost part of Accomack County, at the Virginia-Maryland state line, and working south.
"This is unique, because in other states, it's interstates," said Alexander.
In Virginia, VDOT already has contracts in place for the interstate highways, she said.
Because of the Eastern Shore's unique geography, litter is more than just unsightly.
"On the Eastern Shore, all roads and thus all ditches, end up leading to the water — so our litter problem is not just a litter on the side of the road problem — it becomes a stormwater drainage problem," Alexander said in a new video VDOT produced about the Eastern Shore project.
Accomack County Supervisor Paul Muhly plays a leading role in the VDOT video.
"I just get so bent out of shape — it's disgusting, absolutely disgusting ... The trash and the litter on the side of the highway — it's much too common," Muhly said in the video.
"It's a doggone shame that we even have to put up with it," said Muhly, a member of Waste Watchers.
Waste Watchers members have been working for a long time to get the Sponsor-a-Road program on the Shore.
The years-long effort in large part was spearheaded by Alan Silverman, another Waste Watchers member.
During his travels, Silverman wondered why roads in Maryland and Delaware appeared to have so much less litter than he saw on roads on Virginia's Eastern Shore. After researching, he discovered that at least part of the answer was the presence of the Sponsor-a-Highway program in those states.
On the Shore, the name became Sponsor-a-Road to reflect its back-roads emphasis.
"Folks volunteer to pick up roadside litter under VDOT's Adopt-a-Highway program, but not enough of them to deal with the many miles of roads," Silverman said, adding the Sponsor-a-Highway concept could help fill the gap.
The similarly-named Adopt-a-Highway program is one in which volunteers pick up litter themselves several times a year along an adopted stretch of road.
"Companies and some individuals will not pick up roadside litter, but they might pay for litter pickup and, in the case of the fast-food, beer and soft drink companies who are responsible for putting on the market the vast majority of the items littered, I think they should pay," Silverman said.
He met with VDOT officials in Richmond in June 2015, when the highway department agreed to the Eastern Shore project if certain requirements were met, including determining what entity would hold the master permit giving authority to pick up litter on the roadways.
Accomack County’s Board of Supervisors later agreed to waive landfill tipping fees for litter the contractor collects under the program.
Along with the two businesses, the Eastern Shore Watersheds Roundtable is among the first sponsors for the Eastern Shore program.
The Eastern Shore Watersheds Roundtable is a networking group sponsored by an annual grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The Roundtable grant is administered by the 46 year-old nonprofit Eastern Shore Resource Conservation and Development Council.
“An early collaboration between the RC&D and Waste Watchers resulted in grant funds to purchase recycling bins for use at public events to help reduce litter. Since then, the council has looked for ways to support the important work of Waste Watchers," said RC&D executive board member Edwin Long.
"The Sponsor-a-Road program is a great fit for our roundtable grant and we encourage local members of the business community to follow our lead and sign up for a cleaner Shore and cleaner water for all,” Long said.
“After Waste Watchers of the Eastern Shore, in partnership with ANPDC, did the heavy lifting to establish Sponsor-A-Road on the Shore, the Eastern Shore Watersheds Roundtable was pleased to be one of the first sponsors of the local program,” said Josephine Mooney, RC&D projects director.
“By allocating roundtable grant funds to help launch this important initiative, and by continuing to support the program for the third year in a row, the roundtable members hope it will stimulate other businesses to Sponsor-A-Road while establishing name recognition as an environmentally responsible business. They can also earn points toward recognition as a Shorekeeper Certified Clean Water Business,” Mooney said.
The contract allowing the program to get underway was signed in June 2016, and May 2017 was when the first cleanup happened, on Holland Road and Fleming Road.
Greta Road is next on the list for litter removal under the program, Alexander said.
"Just in 2017, there were four cleanups that collected 250 bags of litter," she said.
That was with just two sponsors — Tyson recently joined them, becoming the third sponsor on the Shore.
The cleanups are done at about two-month intervals.
The litter removal company is actively seeking additional sponsors, so that more miles of roads on the Eastern Shore can be cleaned of litter.
"It took a long time to sort out the many details, but we have finally gotten started," said Silverman, adding, "I had expected more sponsors by this time, and we continue to work with the contracted litter removal company, which is responsible for sales of sponsorships."
Silverman said data shows an improvement in roadside appearance.
"We can shift the pickups to get the best result. But we need many more sponsors, and I hope the readers let the places where they spend money know, over and over, that sponsoring litter removal will be appreciated," he said.
It costs around $120 per month to sponsor keeping a mile of road clean of litter.
The Shore program is a three-year pilot project, with the potential of being extended for an additional two, one-year, terms — for a total of five years.
"We need the program to be successful so we can keep it on the Shore — and expand it," Alexander said.
For information about how to sponsor a road on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, go to https://adoptahighway.net/eastern-shore-of-virginia/ or contact Paige Woods, territory manager, at paige@adoptahighway.net.
