Adopt A Highway Program Celebrates 25 Years

While you probably don’t find silver along the highways, the Adopt-A-Highway program in Kansas is celebrating a silver anniversary as it began in the state 25 years ago. Since spring 1990, thousands of groups have participated and a number of the original groups are still active today.

Trinity Lutheran Church is one of the original groups, and when they started, members collected 40 bags of trash at a time on their section along U.S. 50 east of Garden City, said Youth Director Leland Jackson. Now, they get only 15 bags.

When you see sections of highways that are adopted, you can see that people are taking care of their areas, he said.

“It gives ownership to our citizens that they can do something for their community,” Jackson said.

Kansas Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway Coordinator Dale Kirmer encourages any non-profit group that does not discriminate upon the basis of race, religion or sex to adopt a section of roadway.

“Picking up trash isn’t an easy job, but it’s imperative to help our environment and raise awareness of the negative effects of pollution,” Kirmer said. “It also helps our KDOT field crews and allows them to focus on maintenance efforts.”

For more information on the Adopt-A-Highway program, contact KDOT.