In an effort to battle litter in Peachtree City, officials are looking into requiring offenders sentenced to community service to walk the city’s streets, picking up litter.

Probationers currently have several possibilities to choose from to meet the number of community service hours ordered by the judge. But that would change somewhat under the new proposal as the court would order a specific amount of those hours to be conducted in litter pickup.

Details are still being worked out, the City Council was told Saturday at its annual retreat. The probationers would be supervised by volunteers from Keep Peachtree City Beautiful, said Administrative Services Supervisor Nikki Vrana.

Vrana said she has discussed the concept with Municipal Court Judge Stephen Ott. Ott noted that it might not be a good idea to put probationers picking up litter on the cart path system as it might give them ideas about new potential offenses, she said.

Instead, the probationers could pick up litter in the right of way, commercial and industrial areas, Vrana said.

Al Yougel of Keep Peachtree City Beautiful said he wants to use the probationers to collect litter particularly from storm drain basins where rain washes litter debris.

Yougel injected some levity to the discussion as he “portrayed” a parent waking up their son so he can go do his court-ordered community service.

“Gregory, get up. You’ve got to see the evil man with the grabber today,” Yougel said, referring to the “grabber” device that allows one to grab litter from the ground while in a standing position.

Yougel also invited council members to help pick up litter in town.

“Some of you deserve a little community service,” Yougel joked.

Seriously, though, Yougel is hopeful about the program’s advantages.

“I highly encourage this and look forward to seeing those, uh, criminals,” he said with a smile.

Vrana said based on the DUI convictions in city court last year, if each person were mandated to do 20 hours of litter pickup, they would rack up nearly 3,000 hours during one year. DUI offenders are required to serve either 20 or 40 hours of community service based on a first offense and 30 days of community service for a third offense.

The mandatory litter pickup would not be limited to DUI offenders so the number of hours served would be higher, Vrana said. Also, the court would only sentence the probationer to a certain number of hours for litter pickup and not the full amount of community service required, Vrana indicated.

Currently the city allows community service to be served in a variety of ways chosen by the offender, including work at the Goodwill thrift store, Habitat for Humanity, the YMCA and others, Vrana said.

“Picking up litter wasn’t one of the popular options,” Vrana said.

The city’s probationers are overseen by a private company that contracts with the city and charges probationers a fee for the service.

Vrana said city officials will get with their counterparts in Smyrna to look at their “hold harmless” agreements to protect the city legally while probationers conduct their community service. KPTCB is also looking into getting a liability coverage insurance policy, she added.

Mayor Harold Logsdon said he thought the concept was a “good plan.”

Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett said she agreed that the litter pickup program could help offenders “learn a lesson.”

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