Environmental organization reflects, sets goals for new year
Published 9:59 am Wednesday, January 8, 2020
- Star Photo/Amber Wadovick Lora Gilreath and Edward Jordan (left to right) go over the agenda before KCCB's meeting Monday evening. Jordan said while there has been some improvements in the community over the past year, it is not enough.
During Keep Carter County Beautiful’s first 2020 meeting Monday evening, chairman Edward Jordan said he felt the organization’s efforts in the community could be seeing better results than they have seen.
The discussion came up during a brainstorming session about new goals and objectives for the 2020 year, in which he said the organization’s efforts are mostly the same thing every time.
“We are being pretty redundant,” Jordan said.
Other members pointed out a string of accomplishments KCCB has reached recently, especially in the latter half of the year, to say their efforts have been working. The group has made several presentations on environmental awareness to many different groups, including schools, local nonprofits and more.
“The audience we need to reach is not listening,” Jordan said.
While cleanups will remain a critical goal of KCCB, next month will feature a more thorough brainstorming and planning session to determine a course of action throughout 2020.
Joe Johnson from Fast Signs met with the board to discuss plans for the Wayfinding grant signage, how it would work and where to put them.
“It is a modular design,” Johnson said. “They will be tamper-proof.”
The modular design will allow KCCB to replace certain signs with new information or to highlight a different location periodically. When asked, city council member Mike Simerly said putting one of them downtown “should not be an issue.”
Though details are still under development, Jordan said he hopes to release the completed signs by May of this year.
On the subject of enforcement, the board noted there is no city ordinance to let the city pick up old TVs on the side of the road, as they fall under electronic trash. TVs periodically end up in illegal dumps in the area, but if a TV is sitting on the side of a road, the city cannot do anything about it.
Jordan said he would reach out to Elizabethton City Council for more information.
The board scheduled the next Milligan Highway cleanup for Saturday, Feb. 1, at 10 a.m. Their next meeting will take place the following Monday, Feb. 3, at 5:30 p.m.
