This is the last post for this blog

I am starting a new blog on Adopt-a-Highway. You are welcome to follow the link http://adopt-a-highway-minnesota.blogspot.com/

March Adopt-A-highway report - Minnesota

There's getting to be a lot of trash along the highways after a long winter. I went to the Eden Prairie DOT shop and talked with the boys. They know that we trash pickers are gung-ho to get out there. I told Rosey, the head guy at Eden Prairie, that the first group would go out on Earth Day, April 19th and that for three consecutive weeks people would be picking on 169 north.

Mattress fallen on to highway causes SUV to burn

The Strib today ran a story about a lady who ran over a mattress on the highway. The driver was warned by another driver that she was dragging the mattress along the way. She pulled off the road and at the urging of the Good Samaritan driver she abandoned her vehicle. The woman's vehicle was then totally destroyed.

It's a big problem this trash on the highway. Help this season when the call comes to walk the highways of Minnesota again to pick up the trash.

Adrian Peterson-Hwy 62-Nine Mile Creek Adopt A Highway

#28 for the Vikings, Adrian Peterson, was ticketed the other night for going 128 mph. He was stopped on Hwy 62 at Gleason Road. I always knew that people went pretty fast on this stretch of highway, where trash is picked by Nine Mile Creek CAC volunteers, but this is ridiculous.

The 2009 trash picking season is over in Minnesota but the trash is still coming

I haven't been out on the highway for about a month now. The weather in October wasn't good. November weather has been much better. New light poles have been put up in around the Hwy 169 and 62 intersection in suburban Minneapolis. Construction crews have been over almost every piece of that ground and the ground looks pretty clean.

Of course, there is always trash to pick but it can wait until the Spring. I have picked three bags from three different walks. I live on 11th Av S in Hopkins and when I walk to the Caribou in Edina I walk on 11th, Smetana, and Opportunity Ct. I figure that I might as well pick up trash on my way. I have placed the three bags away from the street for pick up next year. I don't want to take a chance that Minnetonka won't be able to pick up these bags before we are hit with a sudden snowstorm. It's that time of the year for sudden snowstorms.

2009 trash picking season is over - Adopt-a-Highway

October has been a bad month to pick up trash . On the 3rd it rained, on the 10th it snowed, and on the 17th ice was over everything.

Trash picking activities will resume in April 2010.

Snow today - trash picking postponed until October 17th

Yesterday there was frost on the pumpkin and today there is snow on the ground. Picking is postponed for another week. Let's meet on Saturday, October 17th.

It's Adopt-A-Highway, not Adopt-A-River

We were picking trash on Hwy 371 in Crow Wing County Minnesota. I looked over the highway bridge and saw that a dock section had washed downstream on the Nokasippi and was caught up. Shoot, you don't see that everyday.

October 10, 2009 Adopt-A-Highway Minnesota

The rain on Saturday kept some volunteers at home and that is to be expected. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, October 10th.

The Cass County site, Hwy 64 (mm 24-26) was picked on Monday of this week. About 95% of the trash in this rural site was jetsam. My impression is that in the metro, the trash mix is about fifty-fifty between flotsam and jetsam.

There is currently no Adopt-A-Highway program in Crow Wing County. I will begin a campaign for the county to adopt such a program and secured the name of one of the county commissioners and I will start there. Cass County has an Adopt-A-Highway program and so should Crow Wing County.

Adopt-A-Highway Minnesota October 3, 2009 rainy day

It's dark and rainy at 7:25 AM. If the rain continues we will have to re-schedule. We can pick it up again next Saturday, October 10th. Come to the 'Bou at Bren Rd and 169 anyway and we can visit. How 'bout those Twins? And how 'bout them Vikes? And how 'bout that Bret Fave?

Litter facts from Minnesota DOT

Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up litter on more than 12,000 miles of Minnesota roadways.
Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up approximately 26,000 tons of litter every year.
During a one-time sweep of Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Adopt-a-Highway volunteers picked up 192 tons of trash in one day. The quantity filled 16 Mn/DOT tandem trucks and represented approximately 6,000 filled trash bags.
Researchers calculate that 55% of all littering is done intentionally by people who drop or discard products.
45% of roadside litter occurs unintentionally when trash blows out of uncovered trucks or falls off of unsecured loads.
Experts estimate that approximately 80% of all littering is done by males.
Food and beverage packaging constitutes 51% of roadside litter.
A conviction for littering is a misdemeanor that is entered on the offender's driving record. A second offense requires a minimum fine of $400 and a maximum of $700. A judge may require the offender to pick up litter along public roads or impose a jail sentence. (MN statutes 169.42 subd. 5)
Mn/DOT can bill an individual for retrieving and disposing of illegally dumped items like tires, appliances, furniture and hazardous waste.
Adopt-a-Highway volunteers save Mn/DOT $6.9 million every year.
Tipping fees imposed by landfills cost Mn/DOT approximately $250,000 every year.

Adopt-A-Highway - Minnesota

Today a group of five of us picked trash in Crow Wing County. [The group is Bethany Lutheran College Friends]. I had some cancellations and so we were down to one car instead of two. We picked around Fort Ripley where the Nokasippi runs into the Mississippi. A reporter from The Brainerd Daily Dispatch is doing a feature story on senior citizens who do volunteer work. Our group of volunteers has been selected. We spoke with the reporter at the Baxter Caribou before we went out to the site. A photographer followed an hour later and snapped some pix of the group in action.

As I crossed the Nokasippi I looked over the side and saw a big section of someone's dock hung up below. I snapped a picture and will put it in the blog when I came back home.

The trash picking season ends for me on or about October 17th. For three consecutive Saturdays pickers will be working the Hwy 169-62 area in Edina, Hopkins, and Eden Prairie.

The story behind this sign

I had intended to put the name of the coffee shop where I am a regular patron on this sign. There are three coffee shops in close proximity to this site. The manager of the shop repeatedly told me that he didn't think he could get approval from higher HQ. I asked my friends at the coffee shop what I should do when the site became available. They told me to put my own name on the sign since the coffee shop manager wouldn't make a commitment.

Adopt-A- Highway Minnesota

This section of Hwy 62 in Hennepin County runs from Hwy 100 to Gleason Rd. The pick is scheduled for October 3, 2009. Call Norman Teigen at 612-750-9101 for details. It'll be a great day so join in on the fun. Assemble at the Caribou Coffee Shop at 169 and Bren Rd. in Edina at 8:45 AM.

October, 3, 10, 17, 2009

Members of the Bethany Lutheran College Friends and Nine Mile Creek are invited to the Bren Road Caribou on October 3, 10, 17 for pick-up activity. We will try to get as much done on the 3rd, it will be likely to take more than one try to get it all done.

Bethany baseball team to participate in Adopt-a-Highway

The Bethany baseball team, all 35 of them, will handle the pick at the Nicollet County site. I will participate and post some pix to this blog.

October 3, 2009 - big day for Adopt-A-Highway in Edina, Hopkins, and Minnetonka

Bethany Lutheran College Friends and Nine Mile Creek CAC volunteers are invited to pick up trash on Saturday, October 3, 2009. As usual, we will meet at the Caribou Coffee Shop at Bren Road and 169 in Edina around 8:30 or 9:00 am.

The DOT asked me to take another section of Hwy 62 (from Gleason Rd to Shady Oak Rd) but I couldn't find any group that wanted to take it. I decided to take it myself. I will post a picture of all of the signs later on when I finish up on some of my vacation travels.


Send an e-mail to me at norman61@me.com I'd like to hear from you.

Arizona will not provide signs for Adopt-A-Highway

ADOT HAS TEMPORARILY STOPPED MANUFACTURING AND INSTALLING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SIGNS FOR NEW ADOPT A HIGHWAY VOLUNTEER GROUPS. THIS IS A COST CUTTING MEASURE AND ADOT APOLOGIZES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

[Norman's comment: Cheep, cheep, cheep! Another reason to live in Minnesota.]

Adopt-A-Highway

This group picks trash in Minnesota.   Sites are located in Nicollet, Hennepin, Morrison, Crow Wing, and Cass Counties.

Thanks to all who participate.

I found an SUV in 9 Mile Creek today

I discovered that an SUV was in Nine Mile Creek today as I was returning from church. I called the Hopkins police. I told them that I was involved in trash picking along the creek with the Nine Mile Creek CAC but that I didn't have a big enough bag for the SUV.

I did not have my camera along and when I returned an hour later, the vehicle had already been pulled out.