Trash talk: Cape seeks to stamp out litterbugs

Many Cape Girardeau residents and city leaders pride themselves on the beauty of their city, but it's becoming harder to ignore one issue: litter.

From tossed cigarettes to discarded fast-food bags, trash seems to be a chronic issue.

But plenty of people are interested in finding a solution. Through volunteering with committees or random acts of kindness, these people have been working to reverse the trend.

In its Neighborhood Development Initiative meetings, the Red Star Revival group in Ward 1 has plenty of members who can be seen walking regularly through the area, trash bag in hand to pick up litter.

"That's what it takes sometimes," Councilwoman Loretta Schneider said.

Downtown business owners also can be seen out picking up stray wrappers and windblown plastic bags -- an effort combined with weekly pickup by Teen Challenge crews funded through Old Town Cape.

The Downtown Community Improvement District also hopes to begin offering beautification services by the end of the year.

Perhaps the easiest time to see volunteers working to improve the city is in April. The last Saturday of the month is dedicated as Friends of the Parks Day, a tradition that's carried on for about 30 years. It more recently was expanded to the Great Cape Cleanup, in part thanks to efforts of the Keep Cape Beautiful Committee.

The event offers opportunities to participate in projects at the parks, but also encourages groups and people to improve any area around town -- from schools and businesses to their front yards. More than 300 people braved rainy weather this year to participate.

About a dozen people belong to the Keep Cape Beautiful Committee, including parks and recreation staff and Schneider, the city council liaison. The group's motto is simple: "If you care, please do your share."

The city's original beautification organization began in 2007 as "Keep Southeast Missouri Beautiful," with several organizations participating and the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce taking the lead. As priorities changed, the group re-formed as Keep Cape Beautiful in 2012, supported by the council and the city's parks and recreation department. It is an affiliate of national not-for-profit Keep America Beautiful, which encourages lasting change in beautification efforts across the country.

"We want to educate people about what they should be doing for our community," said local committee member Becky Mocherman.

That's part of the reason Keep Cape Beautiful is an advocate of volunteerism efforts such as the Great Cape Cleanup. Schneider said the committee pushes every year to get more people involved. It would like to see the Great Cape Cleanup become a monthlong event by next year.

The group also is studying the city's trash problem by completing a litter index. Committee members take a shuttle through each ward in Cape Girardeau, examining primary streets and scoring them based on the amount of visible litter. The ratings are on a 1 to 4 scale, with 1 being minimal or no litter and 4 being extremely littered.

Members have toured all but Ward 3, which will be evaluated soon. Mocherman, Schneider and committee member Pat Dahl toured wards 5 and 6 Wednesday with parks and recreation director Julia Thompson.

Because they already toured three other wards, the women quickly came to a consensus on rating each street and noticed patterns. For example, most of the heavily residential neighborhoods seemed to be fairly litter-free, earning the top rating on the litter index scoring sheet.

One area scored as a 2 was a stretch of Siemers Drive between Bloomfield Road and William Street. The committee members said areas near restaurants with drive-through windows seemed to be subject to more littering.

"It just seems like whenever you're near fast food or a drive-through, down goes the trash," Dahl said.

Dahl and the others also noticed that businesses -- fast food or otherwise -- seemed to be making efforts to keep their properties well-maintained. The group has for the past few years awarded the best of those efforts with Beautiful Business Property of the Month awards.

Banks, gas stations, apartment owners and hospitals have been past recipients. The next award, the first of the year, will be given later this month.

The worst-scored area on Wednesday's tour -- receiving a 3 -- was a section of Hawthorne Road boasting few houses, but plenty of trees and shrubs anchoring any litter tossed or blown their way. On the previous tour, the area scoring the lowest was near the intersection of Kingshighway and Old Jackson Road. It received a 4.

Throughout the tour, members have been pleasantly surprised by the number of neighborhoods with clean streets, giving many a top rating. Even some of the busiest routes, such as William and Independence streets, were largely clean.

Schneider, Dahl and Mocherman theorized the amount of litter could be down because people are more involved in or aware of cleanup efforts.

There is evidence that supports the committee's findings so far in the ward-by-ward tour. Last year, the Cape Girardeau Police Department received nearly 150 fewer calls for service regarding trash compared to 2013. It also issued fewer warnings and summonses.

The 2014 numbers for trash are the lowest of those recorded in the department's annual reports, which are available through 2007.

The committee doesn't plan to slow its efforts. It's looking to also tackle graffiti, which seems to be a problem primarily with historic properties, and encourage more recycling.

Once the committee has completed its litter index, scores will be submitted to Keep America Beautiful. The calculated average of the scores provide data each year that will help keep track of improvement or regression across the city.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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Nuisance reports for trash

2014

Calls for service: 699

Warnings: 299

Summonses: 9

2013

Calls for service: 845

Warnings: 398

Summonses: 29

2012

Calls for service: 845

Warnings: 390

Summonses: 56

2011

Calls for service: 786

Warnings: 366

Summonses: 54

2010

Calls for service: 758

Warnings: 358

Summonses: 47

Source: Cape Girardeau Police Department