Governor Joe Manchin and West Virginia’s Make It Shine Program announced the six winners of the West Virginia Make It Shine Clean Community Award. The award is presented annually to municipalities across the state for their extraordinary efforts to beautify and clean up their respective communities.
Each municipality’s application is judged in several categories, including cleanup, recycling, youth participation and beautification.
The 2009 Clean Community Award winners are: the City of Ranson; the City of Bluefield; the City of Dunbar; the Village of Beech Bottom; the Town of Fayetteville; and the Town of West Union. Each winner will receive two road signs designating their municipalities as clean communities.
“Each of us is responsible for keeping our state clean and litter free,” said Gov. Manchin. “I’m pleased to see that so many West Virginians are embracing the REAP program and believe that it will continue to unite more of our communities with a renewed sense of pride.”
Danny Haught, chief of REAP, said the program is proud to recognize these six communities that have shown such a strong commitment to litter, recycling, and environmental education. “With continued efforts such as these, we will make West Virginia the cleanest state in the nation,” Haught said.
The West Virginia Make it Shine Program is part of the governor’s REAP the Next Generation Initiative. For more information on the Clean Community Award, contact Travis Cooper 1-800-322-5530 or by email at Travis.L.Cooper@wv.gov.