The Governor and Lt. Governor are joining forces to help clean up the state with the Task Force on Statewide Litter Abatement and Beautification. The first meeting took place today and Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser said the blight issue is embarrassing.
“The interstates are really bad. I went from Covington to Slidell the other day and saw a mattress and bags of garbage it was embarrassing and that’s unacceptable,” said Nungesser.
Nungesser said the Governor is raising awareness among state department heads in hopes of bringing more attention to the growing issue. The task force includes representatives from state police, sheriff’s departments, district attorneys, and chambers and they’ll meet monthly.
Nungesser said he’s even tried an experiment in his home parish of Plaquemines to discourage littering by placing trash cans along stops leading to Highway 23.
“92% of the garbage ended up in or around those cans, we had to empty them three times a week. We want to put those in high volume areas, where you might pull over and throw it out the window, try to make the garbage can before you hit the interstate,” said Nungesser.
Nungesser said there are laws on the books and fines attached to littering offenses, but they aren’t being enforced, and community service to pick up trash is not being implemented by judges for those with DUI offenses.
“We’ve got to have a program and we’ve got to follow through, education, enforcement. If everybody gets on board with it then we can embarrass the people who are not doing it,” said Nungesser.
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