Samaritans help with littering

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - It's a unique problem that some Terre Haute men wanted to fix.
    
Two good samaritans were out walking Hulman Street this weekend.

“We've noticed how dirty it is. How it's gotten worse the more traffic goes up and down the road,” said Kevin Rogers.
    
Kevin Rogers and Jeff Kennedy said their neighborhood has noticed Hulman Street is littered with trash.
“I thought, well, instead of complaining about it, let's go out and do something about it,” said Rogers.

“We decided to take some action and try to pick up the trash. It's just surprising that people still throw their trash on the road,” said Jeff Kennedy.
    
As we drove around the city, we noticed Hulman Street wasn't the only culprit.
   
So we looked into what city code had to say.
    
Littering is when a person knowingly places or leaves refuse on the property of another person, and it can get you a ticket for up to a $1,000 if left within 100 feet of a body of water.      
    
But Rogers and Kennedy say it's more than just illegal and disgusting to look at.
    
It could have lasting consequences.

“And it's just unsightly to look at every day, plus it's not very ideal thing for guests to come in off the highway, and there's all this trash,” said Kennedy.

“It's kind of a vicious cycle on the local economy. People don't really understand that we need Terre Haute to look good. We need it to look enticing for other families to move in for industry to move in to the area. People don't want to move into a dirty town,” said Rogers.
    
Both hope the community will join them to make their town a better place to live.

“I think it can have lasting impacts, not just locally, but globally,” said Rogers.

“I just hope people would be more considerate when they have a handful of trash or package wrappers that they would leave it in their own car or take it home instead of leaving it here,” said Kennedy.
    
News 10 reached out to Mayor Duke Bennett about the situation.
    
He said he always appreciates additional help from community members to keep the city clean.
    
He does want to remind the city that twice a year, there is a citywide cleanup and asks for volunteers to help.