Greenville Magazine Summer 2019

Greenville LIFE in the EAST

INSIDE:

SUMMER 2019

Tar River Keeper • Town Creek Culvert • Recycling Realities • Adopt-A-Street • FROGGS • ReLeaf

701 W. 14th St. Greenville (252)752-2106 Kim Cobb

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Summer 2019

Lora C. Jordan

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Greenville: Life In The East

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RECYCLING REALITIES

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14

RIVER KEEPER

TOWN CREEK CULVERT

CONTENTS 06 RIVER KEEPER 10 SWIM GUIDE 14 TOWN CREEK CULVERT

24 ADOPT -ASTREET

18 RECYCLING REALITIES 24 ADOPT-A-STREET 28 FROGGS 30 RELEAF

Publisher Robin L. Quillon Editor Bobby Burns Contributing writers Bobby Burns, Karen Eckert, Kelly Fox, Kim Grizzard and Tyler Stocks Photographers Juliette Cooke and Aaron Hines Advertising manager John Powell Advertising representatives Tom Little, Christina Ruotolo, Alan Skirnick and Rubie Smith Creative services director Jessica Harris Creative services Jasmine Blount, Brandi Callahan, Lora Jernigan, Tim Mayberry, Dawn Newton and Matthew Wagner Cover photo by Aaron Hines

Layout design Samuel Alvarado Greenville: Life in the East is a publication of The Daily Reflector and Adams Publishing Group ENC. Contents may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher.

FROM THE EDITOR

Keepin’ it green Welcome to the green issue of Greenville Magazine. Inside find stories about a few of the people, organizations and initiatives that work to keep the Emerald City green.

Learn about increasing challenges that recyclers are facing thanks to China. Learn about how green planning and engineering are helping the city save money and build

a better stormwater system. Read about our river keeper, our greenway advocates, our Adopt-A-Street program and our 30th year as a Tree City USA. Along the way, learn how to join in the cause and help these efforts keep the green in Greenville.

— Bobby Burns

KEEPING THE RIVER SOUND Forrest English is an advocate and educator as the Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper KIM GRIZZARD

W

hen Forrest English says he grew up on the water, he doesn’t necessarily mean swimming or boating or fishing. From early childhood, water wasn’t just a place to play. It was a place to work.

“I grew up working in the family business,” he said. “I think there are probably pictures of me at 10 years old holding survey rods in the stream. Once I was a teenager, I was working in the field, putting wetland plants in place or creating GIS (Geographic Information System) maps.”

Today his job involves ensuring that the water is a safe place to both work and play.

English works for Sound Rivers, a non-

6

JULIETTE COOKE

Forrest English takes a sample from the Tar River for testing pollutants. He developed Sound Rivers' Safe Swim program, which tells residents when areas of the river might contain to much bacteria to safely swim.

profit organization that aims to guard the health of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River Basins. As Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper, he monitors the waterways and works with volunteers to protect and preserve watersheds that cover almost a fourth of North Carolina.

I think what’s encouraging is that there’s a fairly widespread network of people working on water issues throughout the state said English, who joined the staff of Sound Rivers in February 2018, replacing Heather Deck, who now serves as Sound Rivers’ executive director.

Greenville: Life In The East

Summer 2019

Greenville Town Common Aerial View of the Tar River

AARON HINES

Summer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

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English has worked with Klamath Riverkeeper and was the director of Rogue Riverkeeper, where he advocated for the health of river watersheds in the west. He was part of an effort that staved off a gas pipeline and fossil fuel export terminal that would cross hundreds of waterways in Oregon, where he also conducted spotted owl surveys in federal and private forest lands.

The son of a biologist, he grew up working on wetlands assessments, mitigation and restoration. Enrolling at Southern Oregon University, English followed in his father’s footsteps, studying biology and geography. But it was that early experience that helped to prepare him for his current role.

“When I was a kid, it was like we’re going out to the woods, we’re going out to the creek,” he said. “Later on I think I was running heavy equipment, doing wetlands assessments and running labor crews on restoration projects, doing dam removal, that kind of stuff.”

Back then, English’s role was to work with developers to help guide them through the permitting process and help to mitigate some of the impacts of development on the watershed. He enjoyed having a chance to be involved in restoration efforts, such as putting water back into streams that had not flowed in decades or removing dams that were blocking salmon migrations. But those opportunities were rare.

Today, safeguarding the environment and advocating for watersheds are among his daily duties. English seeks to educate area residents and lawmakers about the threats sedimentation and nutrient pollution pose to fish and to some of the rare mussels for which the Tar River is nationally recognized.

“I think one of the other major threats is simply the ongoing budget cuts and capacity loss for the environmental agencies,” he said, adding that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality has lost significant funding over the last decade. “The problems haven’t gone away, but the capacity

8

There’s always going to be that tension. People want to make money, and I don’t think that’s incompatible with protecting the places that we live. But we do have to do both.

of the state agencies to solve those problems has decreased dramatically.”

One way Sound Rivers seeks to be part of the solution is to monitor water quality in the region. After English’s arrival last year, the organization launched a swim guide designed to inform people about water conditions and possible dangers from pollutants. (See related story.)

Much of the water sampling from the 10 testing sites along the Tar-Pamlico River Basin is done by volunteers. Though his title is riverkeeper, English finds that much of his work isn’t on the water.

“I think probably people think that we spend all of our time on the water,” he said, laughing. “The bulk of my time is spent on conference calls, working on documents, writing emails, meeting with reporters.”

His work takes him to the state Legislature to talk about issues such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and to Sierra Club meetings to talk about proposed changes

Forrest English came to Sound Rivers from a similar organization in Oregon in February 2018. As the Tar-Pamlico river keeper, he monitors the waterways and works with volunteers to protect and preserve them.

in the Clean Water Act. “Sometimes I end up in a boat,” he said. “So it’s got a fair amount of variety but there’s more computer work than you would think. We’re getting out on the water not as much as we would like.”

Sitting behind a desk can be challenging for someone who has spent so much of his life in the field. English formerly worked as a commercial fisherman.

“That’s part of why I advocate for watersheds, to help the fisheries; their livelihood is at risk,” he said. “I’d like us to still be able to get food from the planet.”

That may come as a surprise to some who see economic and environmental interests as being constantly at odds, but English believes that the two can co-exist.

“There’s always going to be that tension,” he said. “People want to make money, and I don’t think that’s incompatible with protecting the places that we live.

But we do have to do both.”

JULIETTE COOKE

Greenville: Life In The East

Summer 2019

ABOUT

SOUND RIVERS Sound Rivers is a private nonprofit organization that guards the health and natural beauty of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins. It partners with concerned citizens to monitor, protect, restore and preserve the watersheds, which cover 23 percent of North Carolina’s land mass. Their goal is to provide clean water to communities for consumption, recreation, nature preservation and agricultural use.

The group was founded in 2015 with the merger of two of the state’s oldest grassroots conservation organizations, the Neuse River Foundation, established in 1980, and the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, established in 1981. The union made it a stronger advocate for the waterways and bolsters the groups’ impact, according to the organization.

It employe three full-time riverkeepers to monitor and protect the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico basins, serving as scientific experts and educational resources to schools and communities in the watershed. Forrest English is the Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper, Katy Langley Hunt is the Lower Neuse riverkeeper and Matthew Starr is the Upper Neuse riverkeeper.

Former Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Heather Jacobs Deck is now Sound Rivers’ executive director.

Offices New Bern: 252-637-7972 Raleigh: 919 856-1180 Washington: 252-946-7211 www.soundrivers.org

Summer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

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SWIM GUIDE RAISES FLAGS WHEN POLLUTANTS

KIM GRIZZARD

A

long the North Carolina coast, colored flags warn swimmers of dangerous conditions they might not otherwise notice. In the same way, Sound Rivers' swim guide is designed to raise a red flag when pollution levels are high in area waterways.

Launched in 2018, the report is based on a sampling program that tests fecal bacterial levels at sites along the Tar-Pamlico River Basin and the lower Neuse River.

Testing is conducted from mid-May until the end of August at multiple sites.

“We're broadly concerned about water quality throughout the region,” said Forrest English, who serves as Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper. “We want to make sure that people have resources to inform them about where the water quality is less than ideal.”

The results are posted at soundrivers. org/swimguide, on Twitter @PTRiverkeeper and by texting “SWIM” TO 33222 to receive weekly text alerts. A free smartphone app “Swim Guide” also is available on Sound Rivers’ website.

Sites are marked green when the last sample was at healthy levels of bacteria.

Sites are marked red when the last sample was above the criteria, or showed unhealthy levels of bacteria. Sites are marked gray when there are no current results or there is no available information.

The guide, first used to determine water quality in the Great Lakes region, is now being used throughout the country. English said Sound Rivers had a positive response to last year's guide with a number of people viewing the web page, calling to ask questions about the testing or adding themselves to the text-alert system.

JULIETTE COOKE

ARE HIGH

Duncan Anderson, a Tar-Pamlico Water Quality Intern, uses a meter to measure the temperature and salinity of the water in the Tar River.

HOW TO FIND CURRENT RIVER CONDITIONS VISIT www.soundrivers.org/swimguide ON TWITTER @PTRiverkeeper TEXT “SWIM” TO 33222 to receive weekly text alerts.

DOWNLOAD the “Swim Guide” app.

Available in the App Store and Google Play.

“I've heard from some old timers that have said, 'I've been swimming in there forever and I've never gotten sick,'” English said. “But there have been a lot of people (asking) is it safe?”

The majority of the time, he said, the answer is “yes.” Generally the time when pollutants are the highest is after a heavy rainfall.

“When you get rainfall that washes pollutants off of city streets or off of farm fields or where people walk their dogs, that raises fecal bacteria levels,” English said. “We see spikes consistently after it rains. That's normal.”

Sampling gathered following Hurricane Florence showed significant pollutants like E. coli in the water.

“It was extremely high because there were sewage spills everywhere. There were poultry farms underwater,” English said. “There were swine lagoons broken open or flooded and rushing downstream, plus any number of other pollutants.”

He said that after Florence, Sound Rivers was gathering samples before any of the state agencies began testing the water.

Still, the state does not use Sound Rivers' swim guide as a resource.

“In other states I've worked in, they will use our data for their annual assessments.

They will use our data for swim advisories,” he said. “I think North Carolina is, for some reason, seeking to avoid additional data which would inform the public about water quality issues.”

English said the swim guide is intended for informational purposes and does not dictate whether or not waterways are closed to swimmers.

“I'm not going to tell you not to swim,” he said. “I'm just trying to help you make informed decisions.”

Testing a single site for a summer costs about $500, English said, adding that swim guide sampling is funded through grants and private donations.

H O S P I TA L S I M U L AT I O N L A B The Future of Health Sciences starts here.

Volunteers are needed to help collect samples for testing. To volunteer, contact

w w w. p i t t c c . e d u

English at pamtarrk@soundrivers.org.

Summer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

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STORMWATER $AVINGS

Green projects save dollars, make sense for the environment

BOBBY BURNS VIA CITY OF GREENVILLE

G

oing green in Greenville is paying off for the environment, and it’s saving some green for taxpayers.

As part of the city’s $33 million Town Creek Culvert project, crews are trading some downtown pipes, spillways and retention areas for urban wetlands and a regenerative stormwater conveyance system that will naturally filter stormwater from nearly 300 acres of city streets, yards and parking lots as it channels the flow into the Tar River.

When asked about the benefits of the system, city engineer Lisa Kirby didn’t talk about flood mitigation or about how filtering runoff would keep pollution from the river, preventing algae, protecting fish and making the water cleaner for human use.

She didn’t talk immediately about how students at East Carolina University and local schools would use the area as an outdoor laboratory and environmental classroom.

What she talked about first, over environmental common sense, was good old dollars and cents.

“Never mind the fact that everybody should be good stewards of their environment when they can,” said Kirby, who’s coordinating the culvert project and a much larger $150 million upgrade of the city’s stormwater system for the Department of Public Works.

Images from the City of Greenville show work to install a regenerative stormwater drainage system north of Third Street in the city’s downtown.

ECU students, faculty, grounds services, and City of Greenville Public Works staff planted 100 trees along Town Creek near the Town Creek Culvert project to help improve water quality and beautification of the area.

This rendering provided by the City of Greenville illustrates the expected final product of a regenerative stormwater conveyance system underway just north of Third Street and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The system will use stones and plants through which water will filter in stages as it flows toward a new wetland area near the Greenville Bridge at the Town Common.

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Greenville: Life In The East

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This rendering provided by the City of Greenville illustrates the expected final product of a new wetland area near the Greenville Bridge at the Town Common. Construction of the wetland is completes and plantings are underway.

“In this scenario it actually saves the city money to put in the green infrastructure, because what it did was it gave us access to the state Clean Water Revolving Fund, a revolving loan fund, and they have money set aside for green infrastructure projects. So we have to pay it back, it’s a loan, but it’s a crazy low-interest rate for borrowing money.”

Without the loan, the city would have to fund the entire culvert project by selling revenue bonds, then pay that money back at whatever interest rate the market demanded, Kirby said.

VALUE ADDED The city ultimately secured $32.5 million through no-interest and low-interest loans from the fund. Officials estimate that will save the city at least $9 million in interest. The loans will be repaid by city residents and businesses who pay monthly stormwater fees as part of their utility bills.

The state revolving fund encourages construction of features like the regenerative stormwater conveyance system underway just north of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The system will use stones and plants through which water will filter in stages as it flows toward a new wetland area near the Greenville Bridge at the Town Common. Other environmental-

16

ly-conscious additions include permeable pavements, bio-retention areas and tree bed features.

In addition to filtering runoff, the system helps mitigate flooding — downtown Greenville streets routinely flood in heavy rains especially in the area of Reade Circle and Cotanche Street — because a greater volume of water can flow through the new system than can through the more constrictive older piping, officials said.

The project also is saving the city money because replacing dilapidated piping in the area would have been more costly than installing the regenerative stormwater conveyance because the pipe was so large and so deep underground.

“The cost to put the pipe back in, if I remember correctly, was almost double of what it cost me to remove it and put in an RSC. So we saved money just on the project alone, but then you also have the interest rate or the access to the money that we wouldn’t have had access to.”

The water quality features address nitrogen, phosphorus and total suspended solids, or sediment, which is the No. 1 pollutant in North Carolina, Kirby said.

The system was the largest in the United States when it was designed with assistance from nearby ECU, which will install monitoring equipment and conduct research to see how well the system removes pollutants.

Greenville: Life In The East

AGING INFRASTRUCTURE So saving money on a project, not to mention trying to save the environment, is all well and good. But why start a project in the first place if it’s going to cost so much?

The City Council on April 11 increased the rate residents pay on stormwater fees by $4 to help pay for the culvert financing and the $150 million in repairs, upgrades and maintenance identified during a master plan process completed in 2016.

City officials say much of the infrastructure is old, in many places crumbling and elsewhere has not kept pace with development, leading to routine flash flooding, erosion, sinkholes, street damage and more.

The culvert is just the most prominent example. It drains 250 acres in downtown and adjacent areas. It begins near Ninth and Ficklen streets to the south and continues north to the river between Reade Circle and South Summit Street.

Portions of the culvert were built before 1935. As the city continued to develop, and the aging tunnels continued to deteriorate, flooding downtown worsened. On Jan. 1, 2016, a portion of the culvert underneath Third Street collapsed during a storm, taking a section of road with it. The city closed the road until November, when culvert work that started in March was completed at Third Street. The upgrade work expectSummer 2019

PROACTIVE APPROACH

ed to continue through the fall of 2020.

The improvements also were necessitated by construction of Tenth Street Connector, the new road that cut a path through west Greenville from Dickinson Avenue to Farmville Boulevard. Along the way, the crews would cut through other stormwater systems that drained to the north along Vance Street. Those systems drained another 45 acres whose flow would now be directed to Town Creek.

“The Vance Street system outfall was not in great condition,” Kirby said. “The Town Creek Culvert was not in great condition. We had failures on both outfalls.

And so we knew with 10th Street coming on line we were going to have to invest in the outfalls. So after discussion with DOT, they agreed to bring this water into Town Creek Culvert, so the city only had to invest in one outfall and not redo both. So it’s kind of a great decision between the city and DOT that’s the best scenario for the city.”

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES DOT’s agreement to pipe water into Town Creek saved the city more money, Kirby said, and developing more environmentally friendly infrastructure as the city continues to upgrade its systems has the potential to create more savings.

The city partners with groups like the nonprofit Sound Rivers, which works to protect the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse River basins. Sound Rivers has expertise in obtaining grant money to assist with stormwater projects that help maintain the Summer 2019

health of the waterways and tributaries.

The group recently partnered with the city to upgrade a failed stormwater detention pond at Jaycee Park.

The project, part of the work outlined in the stormwater master plan, started in January to improve drainage in an eightacre area around Golden Road, Adams Boulevard and Cedar Lane, including the parkland around East Branch Library and Eastern Elementary School. The water flows into Green Mill Run. It is transforming the overgrown detention pond at the rear of the park, adjacent to the Colonial Heights neighborhood, into a forested bottomland hardwood stormwater wetland, a new type of stormwater wetland designed to treat nutrient pollution and sediment pollution and reduce flooding in the area.

The environmental approach allowed Sound Rivers to tap into grant funds that pay for the project completely.

“So the master plan opens up a whole new set of doors for grants because ... it shows regulators that we are proactive and we have identified these projects already and have done the planning piece. We say this is a great location, the land is available, this is how much we think it’s going to cost and this is the benefit, the water quality benefit, we’re going to get from this project.”

The plan put the city ahead of the game when it and its partners start to apply for grants, Kirby said. Private foundation and governmental funding agencies see the community is obviously interested in their water quality and that encourages them to invest in Greenville.

Greenville: Life In The East

The planning and upgrades also keep state regulators out of Greenville pockets, saving more time and expense for city staff and developers.

Laws to keep waterways clean established limits on pollutants, and streams with pollutants above those levels are labeled as impaired and placed on what’s called a 303 D list that’s regularly updated. The state orders local governments to monitor and take steps to reduce pollutants on the worst streams.

That costs communities hundreds of thousands of dollars because they have to measure the pollutants and come up with stricter development regulations and enforce them. That impacts the development community because it limits what they can build in that drainage basin.

So maintaining stormwater systems with the environment in mind will help keep Greenville, which already has several streams on the 303 D list, off the state’s radar “It shows the regulators that we’re a proactive community and we’re responsible to our environment,” Kirby said, “... and if they see that Greenville has made improvements to their environment on their own, without state regulation, we drop to the bottom of the list. They go after the communities that aren’t vested.”

Kirby’s businesslike approach to green planning makes little direct appeal to the heart-string benefits like reducing fish-killing algae blooms, and she makes no apologies for it. Saving fish and having cool places for your family to enjoy the outdoors are worthy goals, but broader issues are at stake.

“Those are all very good points, but it depends on who your audience is what makes it important to them. I usually tend to focus on the cost savings because that usually touches more citizens than just the moral and ethical value of it.”

17

RECYCLING REALITIES Market forces will challenge community to be smart about waste management TYLER STOCKS

W

orkers fought off flies and toiled through the stench of soiled diapers and other garbage recently as they separated the waste from the useful stream of aluminum and plastics that flow in a never-ending current into East Carolina Vocational Center’s recycling center.

The garbage is an unwelcome but daily presence at the Staton Road facility. Workers used rakes and gloved hands to pull it from good material as it traveled down conveyor belts to be sorted and separated by other workers and eventually baled and shipped to buyers, many in China.

Buyers won’t take loads contaminated with human waste, food, and material that’s hard or expensive to recycle, like plastic bags and Styrofoam. So folks who load up their recycling bins with items that should go into the waste bins — even if intentions are good — make it harder for ECVC to make a profit and stay in the business of employing people with disabilities and diverting what can be recycled from the waste stream.

“What we try to do is provide jobs based on the recycling industry and the recycling side of it,” Operations Manager John Coward said. “What we do more than anything else is work as a team with our waste haulers, with our municipalities,

18

JULIETTE COOKE

with our city, with our county. We work as a team to make sure all the materials in Pitt County and surrounding counties get recycled. Our main goal is to prep the material for the recycler. We sort the material in recycling bins, put everything in its own family.”

In an ideal world, ECVC workers would only sort recyclables and not have to deal with garbage, Coward said. Garbage mixed with otherwise good materials greatly hinders production and processing of recyclables.

“We have to slow the machines down when it’s contaminated,” Coward said. “We have extra people pull the trash out, the items that block good items from being sorted.”

And to compound the issue, once the garbage is separated, some recyclables have to be pulled out because ECVC has no buyers for them. Coward said items like cereal boxes, juice cartons and magazines are in low demand, forcing ECVC to stockpile them until it can recruit a buyer or send them back to the landfill.

“If it comes here, it’s going to have to be sent back to the landfill as trash unless we can make a market for it. What we’re trying to do is get out the best of the best and get rid of the rest,” Coward said. “If you spend all of your finances in labor to handle material that has no value, you’re going

Greenville: Life In The East

Summer 2019

LET’S RECYCLE THE RIGHT WAY

John Coward explains the process of how recyclable materials are sorted at the ECVC Recycling Center.

to end up losing more and more money.”

Fortunately, ECVC processes nearly 500 tons of good material that can be sold in other markets. Some of the recyclables that are in the highest demand are plastic drink and detergent bottles, aluminum cans and double walled cardboard.

With China being a major buyer, it can demand more out of its suppliers, and China only allows a 1.5 percent contamination rate in the bales of recyclables it purchases from ECVC and others. The contamination rate is the amount of foreign material in a bale of a particular type of recyclables.

“The issue is quality. China will still buy exported material from us. Quality is the only way you’re going to get it to their doors. Quality meaning no contamination,” Summer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

Coward said.

According to Coward, 35 percent of all recyclables worldwide are bought by China.

What makes the 1.5 percent requirement difficult to achieve is the comingling of recyclables — a practice meant to encourage residents to recycle more by removing any requirement for them to sort the material. The problem it creates is people have started throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the bins, officials said.

When trucks arrive to drop off comingles, the loads are graded from 1-10 on the quality of the material: 10 is the best material, 1 is the worst.

For those who receive low scores consistently, Coward said he and other staff

19

PITT COUNTY COLLECTION SITES

Following are the site locations: • Ayden-Grifton, 5171 Weyerhaeuser Road, 746-9261

• Pactolus, 525 Second St., 830-5232

• Bethel, 3993 Creek Bank Road, 825-8681

• Port Terminal, 911 Port Terminal Road, 758-0884

• Bells Fork, 4554 County Home Road, 355-2296

• Shelmerdine, 8270 N.C. 43 South, 746-3821

• Falkland, 5661 N.C. 43 North, 830-5598

• Stantonsburg Road, 3701 Stantonsburg Road, 830-3864

• Farmville, 3457 Wesley Church Road, 753-7240

• Stokes, 2453 N.C. 903 North, 752-6991

• Fountain, 3879 U.S. 258, 749-3525

• Wellcome, 673 Briley Road, 830-3876

• Grimesland, 3558 Avon Road, 758-1372

• Winterville, 4818 Reedy Branch Road, 355-3718

• Limbs (six inches in diameter and not longer than six feet long; no large stumps or roots) • Bushes/shrubs • Pine straw • Grass clippings • Automotive products • Lead acid batteries • Motor oil • All appliances • Clothing and shoes • Cooking oil • Eyeglasses (prescription glasses only) • Metal items • Oyster shells (accepted only at the Bells Fork and Port Terminal sites and the Transfer Station) • White goods/metal

NOT ACCEPTED

Pitt County’s solid waste and recycling collection centers are located at 14 sites throughout the county and accept most waste and recyclable marterial.

HOURS: April – October Mon – Sat, 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Sun, 2 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

November – March Mon – Sat, 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sun, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

CLOSED THANKSGIVING DAY, CHRISTMAS DAY AND EASTER

ACCEPTED ITEMS Items accepted at collection sites include: •Cont ainer products •A luminum cans •G lass bottles and jars (clear, brown and green) •P lastic bottles and containers No. 1-No. 7 •S teel/tin cans •P aper products •Cor rugated cardboard •P aperboard •News paper/magazines/catalogs/phone books •Y ard waste •Leaves

The following items should be delivered to the Pitt County Transfer Station, 3025 Landfill Road.

• Construction and demolition materials • Household hazardous waste • Infectious waste • Stumps/roots • Tires

members will offer ways to improve the loads that are brought in. For those who bring ECVC high quality loads, there are rewards. Coward didn’t elaborate on what those rewards were.

ECVC, Pitt County and the City of Greenville, two of ECVC’s biggest partners, are working to educate the public about limiting what they place in recycling bins.

They will encourage people to bring some recyclables, like electronics, batteries and clothing, to the 14 collection sites operated by Pitt County in communities throughout the county.

“We want people to recycle, but let’s recycle the right way,” Director of Solid Waste and Recycling John Demary said.

Demary said the county can sell items like old computers and car batteries to recyclers who pick up them up from the Pitt County transfer station at 3025 Landfill Road, which is off of Allen Road.

Pitt County closed its landfill in 1995 and now the same facility operates as a transfer station. It sends garbage and waste to the Bertie County landfill.

“Our object is to keep the landfill free of material that otherwise has a reuse or a value to it,” Demary said.

Demary said that Pitt County staffers do speaking engagements at schools and with organizations to educate them about recycling and meet with officials from municipalities along with representatives from ECVC to come up with practical solutions of how to help the public recycle appropriately.

“We try to get everybody to the table so we can talk about contamination,” Demary said.

Officials plan to meet with several groups soon about current recycling challenges.

“Before the end of June, we’re going to meet with the players again and see what we can do to help promote the right way to recycle,” Demary said.

Pitt County as a whole, according to Demary and Coward, does an excellent job of recycling. The problem now is that some recyclables end up going to the wrong places because people simply put them in the recycling bin.

The fact that most people simply toss items in a recycling bin adds up to major financial losses for ECVC, a nonprofit group that trains and employs hundreds of disabled people.

“That bale can get rejected. If that bale gets rejected overseas, you’ve got a charge. That load may sell for $3,000. The penalty for rejection is going to be $4,000,” Coward said.

“We eat a lot of our losses at ECVC so we can still be a major player in the recycling industry. Instead of trying to recycle everything, let’s do more quality items and in essence, you’re recycling more. We lose so many good items because we have so many bad items. When in doubt, throw it out,” he said.

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The revamped Adopt-A-Street program includes new eye-catching signs.

ADOPT -ASTREET PROGRAM SWEEPS THROUGH GREENVILLE KAREN ECKERT

VIA CITY OF GREENVILLE

G

reenville’s revamped Adopt-A-Street program is making a clean sweep in the city in more ways than one.

The program, which allows groups around the city to “adopt” and clean a street for two years, has been getting a makeover, said recycling coordinator Holly Parrott, who oversees the program through the Department of Public Works.

The makeover has included a scrubbing of records to ensure groups registered to clean the streets are active, increased recruitment of new volunteer groups and more visible, colorful signage, said Parrott.

As a result of these efforts, there are more than 65 organizations that have adopted or recommitted to adopting streets since June, Parrott said.

Each of the groups is at a different stage

24

in the commitment process, with some just getting started and others having already participated in a few clean-ups, she said.

“We welcome every group (and) organization, she said. “I get (groups) rolling in every week ... Interest is snowballing.”

The organizations consist mostly of nonprofit groups, including fraternities and sororities, social clubs, professional clubs, a motorcycle club and even a couple of families, said Parrott.

When a group joins the Adopt-A-Street program, its members make a commitment to pick up trash along a particular stretch of road four times a year, usually once in the spring, summer, fall and winter, said Parrott.

College groups, whose members are often gone for the summer, may collect trash on a slightly altered schedule, such as twice in the fall and twice in the spring.

Greenville: Life In The East

JOINING THE CLUB The No Strings Attached Social Club, a group who has taken care of a section of Farmville Boulevard in the past, recently recommitted to the program, this time along Hooker Road between Dickinson Avenue and Greenville Boulevard, said Vernitta Davis, the club’s founder and president.

Adopting a street fits in with the mission of the club, said Davis. Influencing children in a positive way is an important mission of the social club, and picking up trash sets a good example.

Davis said club members want to help keep the city clean and keep it presentable for visitors, including those from out of state.

In addition to the many nonprofit organizations who participate, Parrott also

Summer 2019

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

WITN staff clean litter from Arlington Blvd as part of the City’s Adopt-AStreet program.

would like to see more businesses participating.

One business that has joined the program is Rivers & Associates Inc., a company that specializes in engineering services, site surveying and land planning.

Rivers got involved when the city restructured the program last summer, said Mark Garner, vice president.

When Garner first heard of the program “a light bulb went off” for him, he said.

“We wanted to be one of the first ones to volunteer to be a part of it. Our company was founded here in Greenville in 1918 and we’re right downtown where we’ve always been for a hundred years ... Last year was our centennial and it was just part of giving back to the community, a project that we felt like we should take on,” said Garner.

“We use it as a team building exercise. We have over 40 employees and we try to get six people each time to do it ... Volunteers come from the different departments so people that know each other, but don’t work side by side with each other every day, have an opportunity to interact ... as well as helping to keep Greenville green,” he said.

The company, located on Second Street, adopted a grid of streets that covers approximately one mile, running between First and Second streets from Pitt to Reade streets, said Garner.

Summer 2019

There is no cost to a business or organization to take part in the program, said Garner. And the city supplies reflective vests, gloves and trash bags.

A group must designate one member to attend a brief city-sponsored training session and then that person is responsible for sharing that information with the rest of the group, Parrott said.

Another business that has accepted the Adopt-A-Street challenge is Suddenlink Communications, Parrott.

Suddenlink got involved this past fall when it adopted Arlington Boulevard between Stantonsburg and Dickinson, a stretch of road that runs right in front of its building, said Lisa Stokes, the company’s community engagement manager and coordinator of the program.

The company has completed three clean-up sessions so far, including one this spring where close to 30 employees volunteered, said Stokes.

“We typically try to (pick up trash) around lunch hours ... Employees volunteer their lunch-hour time to participate,” she said. “(Suddenlink is) very dedicated to being an active partner in the local community where we serve and live and it’s important that we give back to make a positive difference,” said Stokes.

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25

The employees, some of whom live in Rocky Mount, New Bern and Kinston and other places outside the city limits, say they are glad we decided to do something like this and to be involved, said Stokes.

“They’re surprised at how much we actually pick up every time, that people really throw out so much trash. We’re amazed at how much we collect. It’s a noticeable difference once we complete (the job) and we have the number of bags collected. It’s like ‘Wow!’ — we are making a difference,” said Stokes.

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EVERYWHERE A SIGN Updated signage is another feature of the program’s makeover, said Parrott.

The new Adopt-A-Street signs are more colorful than the green and white signs used in previous years, and they are popping up all over Greenville, she said.

After a group does its first quarterly clean, a general Adopt-AStreet sign goes up. Then, after the group does its second quarterly clean, the group is eligible for a sign with its name on it, said Parrott.

The signs, which are placed at the beginning and end of a group’s stretch of road, have an advertising value, said Parrott.

Sometimes streets directly in front of businesses are not available, but a company does not necessarily have to adopt its own street, said Parrott.

If businesses are concerned about not being able to adopt their own streets, Parrott said she explains to them that they need to think of the Adopt-A-Street signs as they would think of a billboard.

You wouldn’t place a billboard right on top of your business. You’d put it somewhere else where people will see it, she said.

Parrott said she works hard with organizations to find a road that is the right fit for them if the one they have their heart set on is not available. She has a list of streets that are already adopted and “can adopt out any street within the city limits that has not been adopted.”

The program benefits the people who participate and it benefits the community, said Parrott.

“It’s got a dual purpose,” she said. “It brings your organization together and it also helps to beautify the city that you live in.”

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beer. sports. cars. food. trivia. music. fishing. summer gear. health.

BIGGER THAN EVER Big Rock turns 60

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ING IN LIV

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Coffee roasters • Anne’s chicken pastry • From chef to table • Green Lean Clean • Hardee’s

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Greenville: Life In The East

Summer 2019

Summer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

27

FRIENDS GROUP WORKS TO KEEP GREENWAYS

CLEAN & GREEN KELLY FOX

T

here was coffee, doughnuts and plenty of pine straw and mulch, and despite some rain, Vincent Bellis and Hunt McKinnon got to work recently to make Greenville a little greener.

The men pulled weeds and laid mulch and pine straw near a section of the South Tar River Greenway at Friends Overlook, near the end of Warren Street and the off-leash dog park. Thanks to an anonymous $5,000 donation, they are upgrading a shade garden on the trail.

“With this money we can better develop it in terms of the plants that are there,” McKinnon said. “Part of it floods, so we need plants that are more flood resistant, and we need to rebuild a bridge because there’s a bridge that’s started to float away.”

The shade garden, like many of the amenities along the six-mile greenway system, is the work of the Friends of the Greenville Greenways, or FROGGS, as they are commonly known. The group of volunteers banded together in 2004 to help improve and maintain the growing trail system that links the city’s neighborhoods and green spaces.

Bellis and McKinnon are among about 60 active FROGGS members — folks who paid $15 to join and got a T-shirt in the bargain. Members help raise funds, provide expertise and labor for a variety of projects and advocate for the continued expansion of the trail system.

Bellis, a retired biology professor and one of the group’s founders, has been an advocate for a greenway system for decades and was instrumental in development of a greenway master plan in 1991. He helped start FROGGS around the time that plan was revised, when the only substantial portion completed was a 1.4-mile stretch of the Green Mill Run greenway between Green Springs Park and College Hill Drive.

28

Greenville: Life In The East

Hunt McKinnon and Vincent Bellis are among about 60 active members of the group, Friends of the Greenville Greenways.

Summer 2019

Since then, the group has worked to build shelters, install benches, signage and educational markers and pursue other projects to augment federal, state and local funding that helped build the trail system, which grew to include the 3.1 mile South Tar section from Green Springs Park to the Town Common between 2005-11.

After the Green Mill Run section was extended from a trail head on Charles Boulevard near the ECU stadium complex to Evans Street near Arlington Boulevard in 2015, the group built a pavilion as a pit stop for users of that section of trail. The group recently made improvements to another shelter on the Green Mill trail near the Drew Steele Center closer to Elm Street.

The pavilion and benches that are part of the shade garden where Bellis and McKinnon spread mulch is a peaceful place for visitors to relax and walkers, joggers and bicyclists to take a break from their trek on the trail. The area once was residential, but the city acquired the land as part of the federal buyout of homes flooded after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

The group will be planting trees in the area from local nurseries and other greenery that Bellis has started in his yard. The mulch will help visitors stay on the woodland path that takes visitors to the river’s edge and and avoid planted areas, McKinnon said.

The area flooded again after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Bellis said that fencing at one section of the overlook washed away and was returned and rebuilt by members of the National Guard.

“They found it wrapped around a pine tree ... and were bringing it back.”

The garden and FROGGS have been one of the city’s best-kept secrets. Bellis and McKinnon want to change that.

While the two were working, a man came over to retrieve his dog who strayed into the garden. The man said he didn’t know that the shelter, the garden or FROGGS existed.

Bellis said he had been working in the garden on another day and several people came up and asked, “Is this a private garSummer 2019

Greenville: Life In The East

den? Can I walk through? I said, no, this is fully public land,” he said, chuckling to himself.

To promote themselves, the group has a website where people can make donations, www.froggs.org. The group is working to update the site and a map that does not included the latest greenway additions.

It holds an annual “Friend-raiser,” the last at the Pitt Street Brewery, and works closely with Greenville ReLeaf, a tree planting group that has helped Greenville maintain its national Tree City status for 30 years.

Together the groups host tree-planting events and opportunities to educate young people about maintaining the environment for the public good.

A core group members helps carry out much of the group’s work, with occasional assistance from businesses, church and school groups and community organizations like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

But Bellis would like more folks who value the system to join FROGGS. “I’m getting too old to manage this now, and we need to get some other people to take over managing and arranging things now,” Bellis said.

Whenever he’s out on a sunny day, he sees young people with dogs, with strollers, people biking and people running.

“The greenway gets a lot of use, but people don’t understand how much it takes to maintain the green spaces and provide items like benches, water fountains, and other items they’d find in the park,” he said.

For example, one interpretive sign that runners pass on a path takes $1,700 to build and install. One picnic table costs $1,000 to install.

In its 14-year history the group has raised roughly $30,000 to keep the green in Greenville, but more can always be achieved when like-minded citizens get together, he said.

For more information about donating time, talent or money to FROGGS, check out www.froggs.org.

29

Deep roots Greenville, ReLeaf celebrate 30 years as Tree City

erosion; you create a calmer environment.”

Greenville is among about 50 cities in the state and 2,500 communities nationwide to hold the Tree City distinction. In addition to promoting the growth of trees, the program gives cities access to funding to manage them.

Greenville will mark its 30th year as a tree city

I

n this age of urban and suburban sprawl, keeping the environment green isn’t easy.

However, one group in Greenville has been

this year.

Cities must have a public tree ordinance, a tree board or city department responsible

working nearly 30 years to give residents a

for the care of trees, a community forestry

little bit of ReLeaf.

program and host an annual Arbor Day cel-

Greenville ReLeaf grew from the city’s effort to become a Tree City USA in 1989, when it

ebration to be eligible for the honor. ReLeaf is Greenville’s community forestry program.

held its first Arbor Day celebration. The group

In addition to hosting the annual Arbor

planted its first tree in front of the Jenkins Fine

Day programs, which always involve school

Art Building and has planted more than 1,600

children, ReLeaf hosts annual tree plantings

throughout the city in the years since.

early each spring and provides educational

“Our motto on our bumper sticker is ‘To Make Greenville Greener,’” the group’s president, Hunt McKinnon, said. “When you make

programs and services to help residents manage their trees.

Anyone wishing to volunteer, donate money

Greenville greener, you produce more oxygen.

or a tree, or learn more can visit to ReLeaf’s

You sequester more carbon dioxide, you increase

website at www.releaf.us and check out what

absorption of moisture in soil; you help prevent

they can do to make Greenville a little greener.

THE GREENING OF GREENVILLE ReLeaf has planted more than 1,600 trees in Greenville since 1990. Following is a list of some of the locations and numbers of trees.

• 2019: In Moyewood, 100 new trees plus 17 rescued from demolition in Glen Arthur; Regency Drive replanting 35 trees which had not survived the last 10 years.

• 2018: Greenway replanting near the dog park and shade garden — 40 trees.

• 2017: Greenway extension planting from Charles to Evans Street — 110 trees.

• 2016: Lake Ellsworth neighborhood, 85 trees plus pruning and tending the planting at Lakeforest Elementary School.

• 2015: The Dream Park and Community Crossroads Center on Chestnut Street, 35 trees planted as

a result Urban Forest Council grant.

• 2014: College View neighborhood – 250 trees.

• 2013: Glen Arthur neighborhood – 100 trees.

• 2012: River Park North and areas of north Greenville — 85 trees and 150 seedlings.

• 2011: Moyewood Housing Project — number unavailable.

• 2010: Greensprings Park, Fifth Street, West Fourth Street, Cherry Oaks North, downtown Greenville — 175 trees.

• 2004: Hooker Road-Moye Boulevard Connector, 30 trees; Tar River Estates, 20 trees.

• 2003: Plantings on Reade Circle and First Street across from Town Common. Number unavailable.

• 2002: Moye Boulevard, 19 trees; Greenwood Cemetery 10 trees.

• 2001: Town Common, Thomas Foreman Park, Guy Smith Park, Evans Park, Jaycees Park, River Park North, Green Springs Park, Greenwood Cemetery and Plaza Drive — 151 canopy trees and 24 understory trees.

• 2000: Eastern Elementary, 18 trees; Plaza Drive and Redbanks Road from Greenville Boulevard to Evans Street, 25 trees.

• 1999: Airport Road, 37 trees; Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (West Fifth Street) 20 trees; Evans Street, 27 trees. Downtown program curtailed by Hurricane Floyd.

• 1998: Medical District on Stantsburg Road and Fifth Street Extension, number unavailable • 1997: Town Common, 86 trees.

• 1996: Arlington Boulevard from Evans to Fire Tower Road — 183 trees.

• 1995: Arlington Boulevard Extension, 20 Trees.

• 1994: Thomas Foreman Park, 32 trees; Hooker Road, 23 trees.

• 1993: Brody Boulevard and Moye Boulevard near Pitt County Memorial Hospital —117 trees.

• 1992: Arlington Boulevard near Rose High School — 117 trees.

• 1991: Reade Street — 50 trees.

Data between 2005-09 is unavailable. A comprehensive count in underway.

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