A white van emblazoned with the city of Cape Girardeau logo may have been driving in circles Saturday but it was not lost. The winding, curling, often bumpy two-hour trip around town had its purpose.
That purpose was the first ever litter index survey conducted by representatives of Keep Southeast Missouri Beautiful, a local organization soon to be affiliated with the national organization Keep America Beautiful. The survey is a prerequisite for affiliation and is meant to measure just how littered the area is.
The results are still being tabulated, but early returns are encouraging for the group.
"I tried to come into this without any expectations and I was surprised at how clean most of the city is," said Rhett Hendrickson chairman of the Keep Southeast Missouri Beautiful technical committee.
Others agreed.
"I expected to have some fours, but really I only had a couple of threes," said administrative team chair Tim Arbeiter, talking about his scoring.
The scoring system Arbeiter and others used is one designed by Keep America Beautiful. It asks observers to walk or drive through an area and assign it a ranking from one to four. A rank of one means there is almost no visible litter, and a rank of four means an area is heavily littered.
The Cape Girardeau van traveled roads from the river to the Interstate 55 and Route K interchange and everywhere in between. Map in hand, Hendrickson divided up the terrain into 14 zones asking scorers to classify each one according to the scale.
And although there were noticeable dump sites for old appliances on the city's north end and cigarette butts were widely visible, Cape Girardeau looked pretty good on the whole, participants said.
"I was pleasantly surprised," said city Councilwoman Loretta Schneider, who said she marked most of her zones 2 or 2.5 indicative of mildly littered areas that could be made pristine with a day's work. "There has been a lot of improvement. Previously I think we took it for granted how good our city can look."
Arbeiter said his preconceived notions were also challenged. "South Sprigg Street was better than I thought it would be, and North Spanish was probably a little worse," he said. "But that's what this is about. It helps us pinpoint the areas where we have work to do."
All surveyors made notes highlighting spots in serious need of attention. Hendrickson thinks the best place to start is where most newcomers get their first view of the city. "I think the Route K, I-55 interchange was the most littered and cleaning it up would have the most impact on the city."
The cigarette issue
Schneider said she would like to see the cigarette issue tackled. "We need to schedule a time for a power washer to come in here and really get rid of all the cigarette butts. You see them everywhere. Sometimes you even see people dumping out ashtrays out of their car windows," she said.
Hendrickson will use the data to map out litter prevalence in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, which was also surveyed Saturday. The Scott County area, also part of the Keep Southeast Missouri Beautiful organization, will be surveyed at a later date. Hendrickson said the positive results from Saturday's event just mean the bar will be set a little higher. Litter can be eliminated if people take ownership of their community.
"We need to get residents and businesses excited to go outside instead of just picking up within their own boundaries," said Hendrickson. "We need people to think 'Let's take care of the whole thing, not just what's mine.'"
The index will be repeated on a yearly basis.
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