City’s litter includes socks, dead fish, cigarette butts

By Harlan Kirgan 
harlan.kirgan@eunicetoday.com
Dirty socks and a dead fish were among  the 209 pounds of litter picked up in about 30 minutes Friday in Leaders Against Litter. 
 Donna Baltakis, Keep Eunice Beautiful director, said there were 80 participants in the Friday morning anti-litter event that ended with 28 bags of trash recovered from Eunice streets. 
“I just want to thank everyone, but I want to remind everyone in the community to continue to take pride and keep our city streets, parking lots, schools and churches clean,” Baltakis said. “We have a beautiful city. This just shows that people do care, young and and old.”
There were 24 LSU Eunice students participating in the cleanup. 
“I didn’t think anybody was going to show,” Baltakis said. The sky was a gray and the rains had only recently stopped as the event began at 8 a.m. Friday. 
The Eunice event was replicated across the state in big and small communities. The results from each event were to be reported by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne.
Cities and parishes from Abbeville, Baton Rouge, Bossier, Eunice, Hammond, Jefferson, Lacombe, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Mandeville, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Monroe, West Monroe, Opelousas, Shreveport, Slidell, St. James, St. John, St. Mary and Terrebonne picked up litter Friday morning. 
Baltakis said,  “We are called the ‘Sportsman Paradise’ on our license plates and sportsman and paradise and litter doesn’t mix. We’ve got to cleanup our state.” 
Litter cleanup costs state taxpayers $40 million a year, according to Keep Louisiana Beautiful.
“The top three negative impacts litter has on Louisiana are damage to the state’s image, cleanup cost and the harmful effects on the environment and wildlife,” the organization stated. 
LSU Eunice student Travonte Robertson of Baton Rouge, said, “I like being a part of such a great community like this,” as he prepared to pickup litter. 
Another volunteer, Bonnie Pitre of Perchville, said, “I’ve always been very strong against litter.”
Lorrie Joubert, a math professor at the college, said dirty socks and “lots and lots and lots of cigarette butts and dead fish” were among the litter her group picked up. 
This is the first year Eunice has participated in Leaders Against Litter, but the city group has been active in beautification efforts. 
Keep Eunice Beautiful performed its third survey of litter at 50 sites in the city. 
“We didn’t see any difference between the first and and second year,” she said. “Last October, the third one, we a saw a difference.”