New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

Lanexa neighbors use exercise to keep streets clean

By Community Member | April 7, 2017 7:32 pm

Lanexa residents Karen Hershberg (left) and Bill Hill (right) combine exercise and citizenship to keep their road clean.

An informal alliance of Lanexa neighbors is making sure that their healthful excursions up and down their neighborhood roads accomplish more than just increased heart rates.

Bill Hill and Karen Hershberg take daily walks along their highways, picking up litter on a daily basis as part of their morning excursions.

For Hill, it was a doctor prescribed walking regimen to improve his health that initiated his clean-up campaign. Carrying a trash bag with him on his daily walks, he matriculates along Homestead Road when daylight hits.

“We just hate the idea of litter along our road and don’t understand why anyone would be so thoughtless as to toss can and bottles out of their cars,” Hill said, commenting on the trash he and his wife Merry Sue encounters along their street. “After my first few days policing the road near my home, I had things looking pretty good. Now, I spend more time walking and less time picking up.”

For Hershberg, another Homestead Road resident, she has been eliminating roadside litter for 20 years since her relocation from Williamsburg to New Kent.

“I just carry a small plastic bag when I walk my dog,” she said. “I leave the filled bags beside the road and another neighbor picks them up on his way to the trash and recycle center. You could say we operate as a tag team.”

Hill and Hershberg hope that others will follow their example.

“If people would occasionally pick up a few discarded cans and other litter in their own areas, our county roads would be pristine,” they concluded.