By Laura Whildin 

If you’ve seen signs advertising that a section of road has been adopted, you may have wondered, “What does it mean?”  It means that volunteers are participating in a county-wide program to keep the road clean by picking up trash at least twice a year. 

Clark Meisner of the Boulder County Department of Transportation started the Adopt-a-Road program in Boulder County as an Earth Day project in 1990.  The program was based on a similar one in Texas.  The purpose was three-fold: 

•  Save taxpayers money by having the roads cleaned by volunteers rather than the county. 
•  Give groups and corporations a chance to be recognized for their service.
•  Have a creative volunteer project for service groups to take part in. 

Currently, about 1,000 volunteers clean 100 miles of county roads.  “The Adopt-A-Road volunteers represent a pretty good cross section of the community,” said Meisner.  Almost any group can volunteer, with the exception of political organizations.  Most of the volunteers are businesses, churches and school groups.  “The community really benefits,” he added.

Sue and John Reuter of Longmont adopted a section of road in memory of their son, Joey, who died in a skiing accident.  Joey suffered from Tourette’s syndrome, a condition that is characterized by twitching and uncontrollable impulses.  Joey was invited by classmates to go skiing at Eldora.  Although he was a good skier, the conditions were treacherous, and Joey hit a tree.  He died shortly after the accident from brain damage. 

The Reuters wanted to keep Joey’s name alive.  That is why they decided to adopt-a-road.  “We wanted to do something for him.  He was very concerned with the environment, so we thought Adopt-A-Road was something he would like,” Sue Reuter said Community First Bank in Niwot has cleaned up 79th Street from Niwot Road to Highway 52 for the past four years.  Branch manager Selene Hall said that Adopt-A-Road mornings are a fun bonding experience for the bank employees.  “We go out at 6 o’clock on Saturday morning when there is no traffic,” she said.  After picking up the road for about an hour, the employees go to breakfast before opening the bank for business.

“The bank is always trying to do things for the community,” Hall said.  “When the employees do something for the community, they feel like a part of it.”  Hall said that part of the philosophy of the bank is, “Banking is more than just computers.” 

Hall also feels that the program is a great way to keep the highways clean.  “I’ve been to other states and they could use it.  If everybody does a little bit, it gets done and it’s no big deal.”

Only roads that have over 1,000 cars per day are eligible to be adopted, usually in two-mile sections.  The county currently has so many volunteers that they have a waiting list for sections of road.  “We would like the road cleaned at least two times per year,” said Meisner.  A group may keep a section of road as long as it continues to participate in its clean up.

“We don’t save money, but we don’t lose money,” Meisner stated.  The county provides garbage bags and disposal service.  All recyclable materials are removed from the trash bags and sent to Eco-Cycle.  The costs of disposal and maintaining a sign approximately equals the cost of county clean up.

However, Meisner ex-plained that there are other benefits.  “The Adopt-A-Road system is a reliable way to pick up roads,” he said.  “The county road maintenance division using work crews from the jail normally cleaned the roads, and these crews were not necessarily assigned specific areas. [Adopt-A-Road] also gives groups a chance to do public service and get recognized for it by having a sign with their name,” Meisner added.

As Meisner stated, many organizations and corporations like to participate in the program as a team-building exercise.  “It gives people the self satisfaction to know that they were able to help as volunteers.”
To adopt-a-road, contact Donna Warner at the County Division of transportation at 303-441-3900 for an application packet and safety guidelines.