Staff Reporter

LAPLACE - The St. John Sheriff's Office will begin an aggressive plan this month to clean up the streets of the parish by cracking down on litter, after being awarded a total of $15,000 by Keep Louisiana Beautiful to implement an extensive anti-litter program.

The non-profit organization awarded two grants to St. John Parish, one for $10,000 for general litter enforcement and another for $5,000 for cigarette butt enforcement and education, which will be combined with an additional $5,000 provided by the St. John Parish Council for litter clean-up. Portions of the cigarette butt removal program grant, conceived last year by Louisiana State Representative Gary Smith, D-Norco, will be used to install new receptacles at high traffic areas and to pay officers overtime to hunt down litterers.

“If someone is traveling on the road or walking on the sidewalk or whatever then we'll try to stop them and tell them it's against the law (to litter),” said Vice Chair of the Keep St. John Beautiful Committee Greg K. Maurin. “We want to take the opportunity to educate them, and if the person needs more than education then we'll have to enforce something.”

Enforcement will begin once the St. John Parish litter ordinance is changed to specifically include cigarette butts, Maurin said. The inclusion will give smokers proper notification and an opportunity to change their habit of flicking cigarette butts, the most littered object in the United States, according to Keep Louisiana Beautiful Representative Leigh Harris.

The rest of the funding will pay for trash pick-up programs, litter education, new trash receptacles in parks and near public buildings and will contribute to overtime pay for officers enforcing the ordinance.

St. John Parish was one of 12 entities awarded the cigarette litter prevention grant, out of a total of 28 applicants that applied, and one of 16 organizations to receive the general litter award. Keep Louisiana Beautiful has existed since 2000 and received $1 from every new or renewed driver's license since 2003, but that funding is set to expire in August if it is not renewed by the legislation. More than one-third and less than half of the organization's budget pays for grants like the two given to the St. John Parish Sheriff's Office.

“Continuing this funding is so important. That's what our organization is about - supporting communities,” Harris said.

The awards from Keep Louisiana Beautiful are essentially reimbursements for all funds spent on litter enforcement by the St. John Parish Sheriff's Office throughout the year with a maximum repayment of $15,000 for the two grants.

“I asked the Sheriff to be our fiscal agent to where we might buy some cigarette receptacles, some rakes pick-up tubes and send them the bill.”

“I think it's great because the Sheriff in St. John Parish is very engaged in the whole anti-litter issue and the importance of it. I can't tell you how much we appreciate that,” Harris said. “Law enforcement taking (littering) seriously is one of the key ways we're going to take it seriously here (in Louisiana).”