Keeping Precinct 4 Beautiful T story by Crystal Simmons
here's a famous stretch of Highway 290 so spectacularly beautiful that even harried motorists eager to reach their destinations sometimes pause for a photo or two, helpless against the allure of bluebonnets on a sunny day. Less than 100 miles to the east in Harris County, motorists discard fast food bags and dirty diapers at stoplights. Couches sit at dead ends, tires and buckets of paint stack up among scraps of old food containers, and cigarette butts peek out between blades of grass.
"The easiest way to tackle litter is to find out who is responsible for maintaining your area," Stinsman says. With years of waste piling up and new litter accumulating daily, addressing litter may seem overwhelming for those unfamiliar with local and state government. The good news is that residents have the tools to fight back against blight. According to Elizabeth Stinsman, the director of Precinct 4's Community Assistance Department, the first step is knowing who to call for service. "The easiest way to tackle litter is to find out who is responsible for maintaining your area," Stinsman says. "We invite residents concerned with litter to reach out to the Community Assistance Department. If we don't maintain the area, we'll help them find the appropriate contact." Responsible parties in Harris County may include commissioners in precincts 1, 2, 3, or 4, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Harris County Toll Road Authority, or a private entity. Even when the proper agency is on the job, keeping streets clean still requires massive amounts of time and money, especially in the sprawling Greater Houston area. 12
Precinct4Update Spring/Summer 2021
ABOVE A Precinct 4 staff member cleans up Spears Road near Veterans Memorial, a litter hotspot.
Across the state, TxDOT maintains more than 79,000 miles of highways and farm-to-market and ranch-to-market roads, including the heavily trafficked and much-maligned FM 1960. With such a large area to cover, litter cleanup on state roads isn't cheap, costing more than $47 million in 2019. Highways in the Greater Houston area are also among the most polluted in the state. "In 2020, Interstate 610, Interstate 10, and Interstate 45 have required the most money spent for cleanup,"
