Keep El Dorado Beautiful has had a busy spring so far.
The group is gearing up to assist with the first community cleanup of the year as part of an effort to reboot its ward cleanup program, a partnership with the El Dorado City Council.
The Ward 3 Community Cleanup is set for 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The event will be held in honor of late Ward 3, Position 2 council members Jimmy Reed and Tony Henry.
KEB is working with current Ward 3 council members Willie McGhee (Position 1) and George Calloway Jr. (Position 2) to coordinate the event.
Ten volunteer teams will receive a $300 cash incentive for their participation in the cleanup.
KEB is particularly encouraging youth groups to volunteer.
Janis Van Hook, president of KEB, emphasized that each team must have a minimum of 10 members and each member must participate fully in the cleanup to be eligible for the cash incentives.
Teams are asked to meet back up in Mattocks Park at 11:30 a.m. for a sack lunch and check presentations.
"Ten people must be there at 8:30 (a.m.) and 10 people must come back at (11:30 a.m.)," Van Hook said. "That is mandatory. We will not issue a check if 10 people left and 10 people don't come back."
The cash incentives are funded by a donation from Clean Harbors, whose general manager, Dan Roblee, is a member of KEB.
Ward 3 is the first of the city's four wards to host a community cleanup this year for the ward cleanup campaign.
In 2018, KEB called on council members to host a community cleanup in their respective wards.
To boost participation from the community, KEB also launched the cash incentive program in 2018.
The program lasted for two years, 2018 and 2019, before a global pandemic and a lack of funding put the kibosh on the effort.
In late 2019, Roblee told KEB members that Clean Harbors would not be able to include funding for the cash incentives in its budget for the next fiscal year.
Last year, KEB discussed reviving the program, which had also stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roblee later announced that Clean Harbors would be able to restore funding this year and on March 9, KEB met with city officials to discuss the matter.
Initially, the ward cleanups were to spread across each quarter of the year, with one cleanup held in each ward, per quarter, starting with Ward 1 and ending with Ward 4 in the final quarter of the year.
With the reboot, KEB and the city council have agreed to coordinate two ward cleanups in the spring and two in the fall this year, noting that summer and winter temperatures are not typically favorable for such activity.
For more information about the Ward 3 cleanup or to sign up volunteer team, call McGhee at 870-314-1441, Calloway at 870-881-1371 or Van Hook at 870-918-2706.
Pop-ups
KEB is also offering cash incentives to youth groups who schedule pop-up cleanups throughout the year.
Destined for Greatness: Pro Skillz, a new, local AAU basketball team for 13 and 14-year-olds, were the first group to take advantage of the offering.
The group held a pop-up, which are held in the interim between larger community cleanups, last month in the St. Louis neighborhood.
Other youth groups that are interested in the program may call Van Hook for additional information.
Litter index
KEB has also revived its Litter Index Survey, in which the group tours select streets in each ward and scores the areas based on criteria that include litter, outside storage and overgrown lots.
Scores are tallied into a composite, with four being the best and one being the worst.
KEB is required to conduct the surveys annually as a requirement of its membership with Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission and Keep America Beautiful.
The surveys must also be conducted during the same time each year and KEB traditionally hits the streets in April.
However, the surveys had been suspended since 2019.
In 2019, KEB canceled the Liter Index Survey because of scheduling conflicts and issues with arranging transportation.
A total of eight people, KEB members and non-members, are required to conduct the survey.
Keep America Beautiful allowed local affiliates to put the surveys on hold for the past three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 15, eight KEB and community members hopped aboard the city's trolley bus to conduct the LIS for the first time in four years.
Members of the group said there were marked improvements in each ward.
Each ward, with the exception of Ward 3, scored above a three.
Scores were:
Ward 1, 3.35.
Ward 2, 3.26.
Ward 3, 2.55.
Ward 4, 3.34.
Van Hook said the scores were impressive and resulted from the efforts of local residents, groups and individuals, who have committed to keeping the city clean.
"All wards went up at least one point. Streets that were in bad shape in (2018) had some improvements on them," Van Hook said.
"There were one or two streets that were bad but overall, all wards made some improvements and we are really happy about that," she added.
Some of the streets with which the group was "very impressed" were West Hillsboro, School, West Cook and West First, all in Ward 2.
Van Hook said KEB is especially pleased with Ward 3, noting, "The last time, Ward 3 did not even score a two. There's still some work to be done in the Detroit (Avenue) and Beech Street areas but we're very proud of them."
KEB gave kudos to groups and individuals who have adopted streets and do their part to keep El Dorado litter-free.
She urged volunteers on the east side of town to join the Adopt-A-Street program, saying that the east side of El Dorado is not well represented in the program.
"Please come on board with us. We would like to give you your props. If we knew who was doing all of this cleaning, you could be recognized for all of your hard work," Van Hook said.
Once volunteers sign up to adopt a street, the city installs signs to denote the streets that have been adopted and the names of the adopters.
Other projects
KEB is making strides in its efforts to take its message into local schools.
This year, the group once again teamed up with Northwest and Yocum elementary schools for its annual "Plant the Town Purple" project to celebrate Earth Day, which was Saturday.
KEB launched the beautification program nearly a decade ago with Northwest, which also known as the Environmental Academy and maintains a greenhouse, and later brought Yocum aboard.
The group distributes low-maintenance, purple plants to students, faculty and staff members and encourage them to plant the "Wildcat Purple" flowers at home.
This year, KEB handed out more than 600 plants to the schools, with 130 going to Yocum.
Van Hook and KEB member Valarie Smith also visited with the Four-Leaf Clover 4-H Club at Hugh Goodwin Elementary School earlier this month.
Van Hook said the pair talked to the students about litter, recycling and beautification and handed out litter bags, activity books, pencils and bumper and shirt stickers that promote litter prevention.
"We got some feedback on that and they were so impressed with it. One boy got an award from Hugh Goodwin because after we left, he went and picked up paper around the school," said Van Hook.
KEB members have also agreed to set up a booth at the Mayhaw Festival, which will be held in conjunction with May on Main, on May 6.
The group made its debut at the Mayhaw Festival in 2022 as part of an effort to boost its visibility and extend its outreach in the community.
"We had a very good day at the Mayhaw Festival ... We had people from other towns asking how to get involved with Keep Arkansas Beautiful and we've had six people to contact us and say they want to adopt a street in their area," Van Hook said last year.
KEB is also planning to repaint its downtown crosswalk mural.
The mural, which features Keep Arkansas Beautiful mascot "Otto the Otter" and purple flowers, was painted last October at the intersection of East Main and North Washington and has already faded.