Keep Carter County Beautiful held its first 2019 meeting Wednesday evening at the Mayor’s Conference room, coming into the new year with big plans and bigger aspirations.

Mayor Rusty Barnett and County Commissioners Ross Garland and Ginger Holdren joined KCCB to discuss the possibility of obtaining a more official presence in Carter County, including their own office space and e-mail service.

“I think there is support from the mayor’s office on this,” Garland said. “I think this is just a financial issue.”

Barnett echoed his sentiment, saying he supports the move but cannot approve it without picking favorites.

“I have got 25 nonprofits wanting the exact same things,” Barnett said. “Everyone has got a great cause.”

Chair of KCCB Ed Jordan said they are already a government agency, and the petition to get a more permanent space is simply to make their presence more known to the community.

“We are getting ready to release a report showcasing all we have done over the past year, including all the man-hours we have spent on volunteer work,” Jordan said.

Garland said the best way for KCCB to get the money needed for a permanent space is to get onto the Budget Committee’s agenda.

Another topic of discussion was a follow-up on the previous meeting’s discussion on petitioning the higher-ups of fast food organizations to include anti-littering messages on the paper packaging on their products.

Community member Mike McDonald came with copies of a planned letter he will send to fast food companies petitioning them to add “Please Don’t Litter” on their paper bags and cups, including example images of how the logos would look.

Holdren said the letters were a good idea, but questioned why the majority of the images were how the message would look on McDonald’s bags.

“I think the example images need to match the company being reached out to,” she said.

At the bottom of the letter was McDonald’s personal e-mail, and the committee flashed back to their earlier discussion, saying the organization’s professional e-mail would look better than his personal e-mail.

The organization passed the motion to send out the letter, provided McDonald make the necessary changes to make the letter more universal. They also decided to look into ways of creating their own professional email, for example a Gmail account, until they could get a .gov account.

In other business, the organization unanimously voted to accept McDonald as an official board member of KCCB.