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Stevenson commitment to beautification shines
Published December 24, 2005
It is a bright December day, and the cold has subsided—-for now. That’s a good thing for Stevenson city employees Ronnie Matthews and Johnny Batey, because, like a handful of other city workers, Matthews and Batey spend their workdays outdoors, scouring the medians and sidelines of the highways leading into Stevenson for trash.
They shuttle along in a golf-cart type contraption, stabbing at litter with long pokers and adding it to the already bulging trash bags in the back of the buggy. They work the stretch of Highway 72 from the Stevenson overpass to Mud Creek to the west and from County Road 69 to the overpass going east.
The ongoing effort to clean up the city has paid off. The nonprofit Alabama PALS (People Against a Littered State) has deemed Stevenson the cleanest city in the state with a population of less than 50,000. Batey and Matthews say there has been a big improvement in the beauty of their hometown, which they instantly attribute to a commitment by Mayor Ricky Steele.
For his part, Steele is serious about trash, and about the example his city is setting for others in the county. The city took responsibility for nine additional miles of highway and regularly mows grass, cuts weeds, and eliminates trash. Driving from Scottsboro toward Stevenson, one notices the difference beginning around Hollywood, Steele says. And because the roads are so clean, people are less inclined to add more litter, he explains.
The spread-the-love mentality toward cleanliness is evident in town, too. The city picks up extraneous trash almost everywhere, but citizens, too, have worked hard to keep their own yards clean, Steele says. “There’s a different attitude now about the environment,” he states, because people have developed the habit of keeping trash out of sight.
It all began four years ago “when the council made a decision to clean up the town,” Steele said of the Stevenson City Council, currently comprised of
Wally Rowe, Bob Spencer, Brent Blackmon, Clyde Jackson, and Brandon Gray.
The council met Thursday morning, and after voting to award a one-time Christmas “raise” of $50 to at-will city employees and $100 to full-timers, members prepared to enjoy a Christmas luncheon at the Choo Choo, where Steele planned to present the clean-city plaque to the street-department workers whose efforts helped earn the award.
The city also threw a lot of muscle behind its effort to spruce up for Christmas. “You don’t have to go to Pigeon Forge” to see great lights, declares Steele. “Our downtown is as pretty as any downtown right now.”
Steele, who said he purchased Christmas decorations after the holiday last year to take advantage of slashed prices, said that city employees worked hand in hand with volunteers to design the holiday-light display.
In addition to downtown, the Stevenson city park is lit up with arrangements of blazing decorative figures installed by individuals and community businesses who chose to donate. “They furnish the lights and decorating,” and we put up the power,” Steele said, adding that any business in the county is welcome to install a display and a sign identifying their effort.
Steele could not say how much the city spent on electricity for the “Christmas in the Park” and downtown light affair. The decorations will remain in place through New Year’s, and all visitors are welcome. The park remains open all night.
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