Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190162
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BY KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Parks and Recreation Department, which runs the program, won a Virginia Take Pride in America Award this spring and was nominated for a national award. Last month, the department received a Volunteer Service Award certificate from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
"We try to look for those kinds of programs where there's a number of people involved," said Leon E. App, state coordinator of the Take Pride in America program and executive assistant to the director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. "The quality of [Christiansburg's program] seemed like a community program. It wasn't just something done by two or three people. It was the whole locality."
"I'm just a real neat freak," said Art Price, director of Christiansburg's Parks and Recreation Department who researched similar programs run by the Virginia Department of Transportation and by Blacksburg before beginning Christiansburg's in 1991. "I wanted to make everything real, real clean, as clean as possible. I just took it because I was interested in it, and I wanted to do it."
But Price is reluctant to take much credit for the program or the award. "The key was people - people who cared about their environment and people who cared about the town of Christiansburg," he said.
Residents have adopted 21 streets and seven parks. Many of these streets and parks are cleaned every day.
One participant, R. Merle Hornbarger, may be somewhat of a fixture on the street he adopted, Pepper Street. He's out there almost every day, picking up trash or whatever else he finds.
His route, a 3/4-mile round trip, takes him up one side of Pepper Street and down the other. He collects beer cans, wrappers and other debris from restaurants and businesses.
"I just like the town to look clean. Some of the streets look bad. I just take an interest in the town," said the 78-year-old retiree. After 1991 open-heart surgery, Hornbarger wanted to keep active and his route answers the need. He also is a Neighborhood Watch and Senior Center volunteer.
Barbara Albert and Mike Phillips, both town employees, keep tabs on Linden Court, where they live. "We pick up as needed," she said. "Everybody likes to see their street clean, so that's why we try."
Albert and Phillips also mow grass along the street. "My street is a very, very short street, so I figured we could maintain it," Albert said.
Christiansburg's program is a little unusual in that it is run by the town's Parks and Recreation Department, but Price says he doesn't think the combination is incongruous: "Recreation is enjoying positive things, and to me, keeping the town clean and recreation go hand in hand."
by CNB