Stephen DonCarlos, Mayor of the City of Baytown, proclaimed April 5, 2008 as Trash Off Day in Baytown and the month of April as Baytown Beautification Month as the City of Baytown Health Department gears up for the 8th Annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off cleanup event on Saturday, April 5t.
The City of Baytown Health Department is affiliated with Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB), a leading state-wide grassroots community improvement, beautification, and environmental organization that encourages and supports community efforts to beautify, cleanup, and protect the Texas environment. KTB presents a number of annual environmental awards recognizing the efforts of Texas communities making a difference in their local communities. The 2007-2008 award winners were recently released on the Keep Texas Beautiful website (www.ktb.org).
The City of Baytown Health Department nominated The Baytown Sun for the Media - Newspaper Award, which recognizes the public awareness and education efforts of the media in supporting environmental issues. The Baytown Sun was announced as the Third Place Winner in the Media Award - Newspaper Award category.
The City of Baytown Health Department Litter Abatement Program was announced as the Second Place Winner in the KTB Government-City category, which is designed to recognize outstanding contribution to the Texas environment by city government departments, divisions or agencies.
The City of Baytown application, submitted by the Health Department, was announced as a winner of the Award of Excellence in the Governor’s Community Achievement Awards program, which recognizes community excellence in the areas of: community leadership and coordination; education; public awareness; litter prevention and cleanup; illegal dumping enforcement; beautification and property Improvement; and solid waste management, by scoring a 90 or above on its application. In addition, the City of Baytown will also receive a Sustained Award of Excellence for scoring a 90 or above on its application for three consecutive years. The Governor’s Community Achievement Awards program is one of the most prestigious environmental awards presented to communities in Texas.
Recognition for these awards takes place June 24-27 at the Annual Keep Texas Beautiful Conference, in Irving, Texas.
“Obviously, we are very pleased to be the recipient of these Keep Texas Beautiful awards,” stated Mike Lester, Director of Health and EMS. “The success of this past year’s program is directly attributed to the direction and goals established by Baytown’s City Council; the guidance of city management; the hard work of numerous city employees from multiple departments; the participation of the Baytown Beautification Advisory Commission; and the enthusiastic volunteers from the City of Baytown.” “In addition,” added Lester, “the program was significantly enhanced with the help and support of our Partners Against Litter Sponsors: ExxonMobil, Bayer Baytown Industrial Park, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, Liberty Tire Recycling, Inc., and The Baytown Sun."