Monday, June 18, 2001
1st Floor Board Room

Good afternoon. I am pleased to announce today one of the most important efforts the City of Wichita and its citizens will undertake… the Don’t Trash Wichita initiative can make our community cleaner, more beautiful and citizens can save themselves lots of money. The Don’t Trash Wichita campaign is being initiated and led by city government, but it will require citizen cooperation and participation to be successful.

We spend more than $1.6-million every year picking up litter, cleaning up illegally dumped trash and repairing vandalized public property. The biggest share of this money has to be spent because of careless, thoughtless and selfish behavior by citizens…. people who toss their fast food wrappers, soda cups and other trash out the car window instead of tossing it in a trash can… people who sneak out and dump old tires, sofas and refrigerators in ditches and vacant lots… people who destroy and vandalize public property.

Let me give you a few facts that may shock you about the high cost of being trashy:

• City maintenance crews spend more than 6,000 hours a year manually picking up litter on public property.

• Nearly 2,000 illegally dumped tires are picked up from public property every year.

• Environmental Health crews respond to 250 incidents of illegal dumping every year.

• Public Works crews spent more than 12,650 hours sweeping major streets in Wichita to pick up litter, trash and debris. The cost to taxpayers was $320,000.

• Vandalism to parks and recreation facilities cost taxpayers more than $130,000 a year.

More than $1.6-million dollars a year in direct costs to taxpayers because of littering, illegal trash dumping and vandalism. It is a waste of money because the biggest share of it can be avoided. You can see the pictures around us that illustrate some of the problems. These happen more often than you can realize. It just doesn’t make sense. Why are people trying to trash our fine community?

We can improve downtown, we can restore neighborhoods, we can beautify the river corridor, we can build world class attractions, museums and hotels – but if people continue to trash Wichita with fast food wrappers, soda cups, pop cans, cigarette butts and other trash, if people continue to dump debris illegally and if people continue to tear-up public property, those efforts will fail. This kind of careless, thoughtless, selfish and illegal behavior hurts our city and it hurts everyone who lives here.

Our Don’t Trash Wichita program tackles trash and vandalism issues in a 3-prong approach.
First – Law enforcement. The City is ready to get tough on serious offenders.
Second is Prevention. You see around you today our “in-your-face-type” of advertising campaign that will kick off the education and prevention portion.
The third and last element is community involvement. For this to be a success, we have to rely on the 340,000 great citizens of Wichita.

If you want to live in a nicer city, if you want to help the environment, if you want to save tax dollars, it is really very simple… and it is in your hands… Don’t Trash Wichita! I’m asking for your help. I am asking everyone to join this effort. But for those who don’t… for those who continue to litter, dump trash illegally and vandalize property, there will be penalties… harsher and stiffer penalties than ever before.

Tomorrow, the Wichita City Council will consider ordinance changes to significantly strengthen penalties for littering, illegal dumping and vandalism offenses. These new amendments consist of these main elements and increase mandatory penalties:

• Littering violations would require a $100 fine for First Offense and $250 for Second Offense.

• Illegal Dumping penalties would be $250 for First Offense with possible jail time and $500 for Second Offense with possible jail time.

• Bulk Illegal Dumping violations would receive a $500 fine for First Offense with possible jail time and $1,000 for Second Offense with mandatory 5 days in jail. Fines are doubled for dumping certain large items such as furniture, appliances, and tires.

All ordinances give Municipal Court Judges the authority to grant community service in lieu of fines. Amendments to Graffiti ordinances allow for the imposition of community service.

Many citizens and businesses are already doing their part to help keep our city clean. For that, we would like to let them know how much we appreciate them.

• Recently, we have had more than 80 students from Linwood Elementary School cleaning up trash in the streets and alleys in their neighborhood. Under the supervision of Community Police Officer Ed Brower, the kids picked up trash and litter from Washington to Hydraulic and Lincoln to Harry. Local businesses donated trash bags and rubber gloves.

• We have 4 fine teenagers here today with Wichita’s Promise to help with our clean up efforts. They are proudly wearing their DON’T TRASH WICHITA T-shirts. I know they will wear them with pride as they pick up the trash in their community. Thank you all for organizing a Neighborhood Clean-up. It is key component to make our city beautiful. Someone has to take the initiative to help clean up this city. We hope others will follow your example.

• Another key element is prevention. Dawson Grimsley has helped raise awareness about the problem of littering through commercials for the Davis-Moore Automobile Dealerships. He helped bring the problem to light – that it really is up to us to keep Wichita beautiful. We appreciate his efforts in all he has done in his community-driven commercial messages. Dawson regretfully had to go out of town, or else he would be here with us.

• One fine fast-food chain that has stepped up to support our community is Wendy’s. Wendy’s has agreed to assist us in our prevention campaign. They have volunteered to be a sponsor by promoting our program through their stores, and even sharing their advertising budget with us by giving this initiative valuable time on their radio commercials. Today we have Eric Lagaly from Wendy’s. Eric, we would like to thank you and your fine organization for leading the charge with us. I hope everyone goes out to Wendy’s for dinner tonight to show his or her support! I want you to wear this T-shirt with pride as a sponsor of this program.

• Eller Media continues to be a fine corporate citizen that has shown us extreme cooperation with this campaign. They will help us communicate this initiative with the snazzy billboard graphics you see here. Eller has said they want a cleaner Wichita as well through their support. We have David Molhagen, Doug Showen, Ron Blue and Tim Brickhisen here with us. Thank you again, we have T-shirts for you all as well.

These fine people have stepped up to help in this effort. But, how can our citizens of Wichita help make this a success? There are several ways each and every citizen and business can join the Don’t Trash Wichita campaign:

• Pick up after yourself. Take a few minutes everyday to pick up litter in your own yard.

• Pick up one piece of litter or trash from a public place, like a sidewalk or parking lot, as you go about your daily routine. If everyone picked up just one piece of trash and tossed it away, it would add up to hundreds of thousands of pieces of litter picked up and disposed every week.

• Dispose of cigarette butts and chewing gum in proper container, not the sidewalk or street.

• Keep a litterbag in your car. If you have lots of trash, carry a box of small trash bags under the car seat. It will make disposing of fast food wrappers, soft drink cups and other trash easy and it will help keep your car neat.

• Organize a clean-up effort in your neighborhood.
  Businesses can and must be partners in the Don’t Trash Wichita effort:

• Start a daily litter patrol. Have employees patrol parking lots and landscaped areas of the business for litter and trash.

• Provide large, conveniently located trash receptacles and ashtrays outside your business for customers to use.

• Make sure trash dumpster lids are closed and trash disposal areas are neat.

• If every business committed a few minutes everyday to picking up trash and litter from their property, it would make a huge dent in the problem. And having clean, neat looking property has to be good for business.

• Tell your customers that you support this initiative – if you have a display board, or a message board of some type – proudly put up our Don’t Trash Wichita slogan.

• The park and recreation department is working on an “Adopt-A-Park” program. Citizens, organizations and businesses are encouraged to Adopt-A-Park.

• And if anyone sees someone violating this program in a major way – such as illegally dumping tires or furniture – please call our Wichita/Sedgwick County Environmental Health Division at 268-8351 so that they can respond to the matter.

The ancient Athenians in Greece took an oath to leave their city better and more beautiful than they found it. Their commitment allowed them to live in a clean, nice community. But the main reason they took this pledge was for their children and future generations. It was their legacy. Today, I am asking everyone to join me in this important effort to clean up our city and leave a legacy for our children and future generations of Wichita citizens. Please… Don’t Trash Wichita!