Community-wide cleanup slated for Texarkana, Arkansas, on Oct. 23

Logo courtesy of Natalie Haywood
Community-wide clean-up on Oct. 23 part of larger effort involving Texarkana Regional Chamber of Commerce and other local organizations.
Logo courtesy of Natalie Haywood Community-wide clean-up on Oct. 23 part of larger effort involving Texarkana Regional Chamber of Commerce and other local organizations.

By Andrew Bell

Texarkana Gazette

TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A community-wide clean-up will be held at Bobby Ferguson Park on Saturday, Oct. 23, from 9 a.m. to noon.

This is an annual event put on by the Texarkana Arkansas City Beautiful Commission and the city of Texarkana, Arkansas.

In addition to the clean-up, there will be an electronic recycling location at Spring Lake Park from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. where items like laptops, televisions, fax machines and more will be accepted. Items like furniture, microwaves, household appliances or refrigerants will not be accepted.

"We have tried to have two clean-ups a year since I've been on the commission -- one in the spring and one in the fall," City Beautiful Chairman Jeff Brown said. "We reach out to schools, churches and civic-minded people in the community. It's just a matter of people going out and finding areas that need to have trash picked up."

Richardson Waste is partnering with the city to provide four dumpsters for four different locations to dump trash in:

Bobby Ferguson Park

3400 U of A Way, located adjacent to the Four States Fairground.

Bramble Park

1002 Ferguson, at the corner of Ferguson and Fulton streets.

Iron Mountain Neighborhood Center

1101 Couch Street, on Couch Street between East 10th and East 12th streets.

Sandflat Neighborhood Center

209 East 14th, at the corner of Ash and East 14th streets.

Brown said there will eventually be a list of items not to bring on City Beautiful's Facebook page.

There will also be a hot dog cookout and special door prizes for volunteers given out after the clean-up at the City Recreational Center, next to the Animal Adoption Shelter.

"Keep Arkansas Beautiful is also partnering with us, and they are promoting anti-litter," Brown said. "They will be sending us supplies and things to hand out -- trash bags, gloves, safety vests and even T-shirt for us to give out."

Littering is an issue Texarkana is attempting to tackle. Texarkana Regional Chamber of Commerce and both cities are involved in an anti-litter effort. They have recruited various community members in a variety of different fields to assist in conveying the message and sparking action.

Brown said initiatives like this help in spreading awareness and, most importantly, providing a call to action.

"Anybody with two eyes can see how ugly it is when people litter," Brown said.

"And I think the sad thing is that some people just don't care. And part of our mission is to try to get people to care."

Brown said it needs to start in schools.

"I'm not saying people can't change, but it's not so easy to change adults' behavior," he said. "So, if we can start with children and work towards that, I think we have a lot better chance of getting our city cleaner and better-kept."

If you want to help, promoters say, just show up.

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