PALS President and Cullman County Economic Development Director, Cherrie Haney
CULLMAN – The Cullman County chapter of People Against a Littered State (PALS) met Thursday morning at the Cullman County Economic Development office, with two main agenda items: the 2017 Cullman City/County Cleanup Day, and upcoming community beautification awards.
Cullman City/County Cleanup Day
The 2017 Cleanup Day has been set for Saturday, April 22.
PALS Chapter President Cherrie Haney explained what this event entails, “We would like everybody to clean up at least a mile (of local roads). I would like for everybody to go from their home one mile in one direction and one mile in the other direction. If we have that done, Cullman County would be clean; we wouldn’t have to worry about all the litter that there is. If you live in a subdivision or something, find an area there.”
Free garbage bags will be available at city halls and town halls around the county, and at the Cullman County Economic Development Office. The County will be setting out dumpsters at the following locations, where people can bring picked-up litter:
West Elementary, East Elementary, Cullman High School, Cold Springs School, Baileyton Town Hall, Colony Community Center, Crane Hill Sulphur Springs, Dodge City fire station, Fairview Community Park, Garden City maintenance area, Good Hope City Hall, behind Hanceville City Hall, Holly Pond Lions Club Park, Jones Chapel School, Vinemont First Baptist Church and West Point Town Hall.
All manner of trash can be dropped off, except tires, paint and chemicals.
2017 Beautification Awards
On June 22, PALS will host an awards luncheon at Camp Meadowbrook, starting at 11:30 a.m., at which it will issue 20 community beautification awards. Ten awards will be given to small businesses, and 10 to large businesses/industries. At that event, PALS will also issue its Clean Campus awards for schools that participate in and promote efforts to keep their facilities clean; first through third place awards will be given in each school category. Tickets will be available for $15, and the event will be catered by Freddie Day.
“We’re really excited this year; this is something new for PALS,” explained Haney. “This has always been a Chamber event; they’ve got a new five-year plan, so they’re passing off different projects to different organizations. We had asked for this a year or two years ago. It was ‘community improvement’ awards, but now we’re going back to the old beautification awards, because it is beautification. You want to see the nice industries that really do a great job of landscaping their facilities and keeping it clean. We want retail businesses that are able to do that, too. This year, we’re only going to do 20, ten in each category; it’s going to be very competitive. It will be judged by outside judges; there will not be anybody from Cullman County that’s judging these.”
When asked what folks need to know about PALS, Haney responded, “My objective is to keep Cullman as clean as it can be, because first impressions are very important. When industry comes in, the first thing they look at is how clean your town is and how good your people are. We’ve been known for a friendly community, and very welcoming; and what welcomes people more than a clean town?”
For more information on PALS or upcoming events, contact Cherrie Haney at 256-531-4222 or chaney@co.cullman.al.us, or Ashley Graves at 256-775-4696 or agraves@co.cullman.al.us.
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