Holmes Democrats collect 19 bags of litter near Millersburg

Volunteers from the Holmes County Democratic Party spent a Saturday morning pulling 19 bags of trash from an adopted highway section east of Millersburg, a small but visible cleanup effort along one of the routes many drivers see every day.

Eight members gathered at County Rd 624 and State Route 39 at 8 a.m. on April 18, 2026, and worked the roadside stretch together. The pickup targeted a section that serves as a gateway into the Millersburg area, where litter can stand out quickly against open shoulders, ditch lines and the edges of farm and neighborhood traffic.

The effort went beyond a one-time cleanup. It reflected Ohio’s Adopt-A-Highway program, which lets volunteer groups adopt a two-mile section or an interchange on a state, federal or interstate route at no cost. The Ohio Department of Transportation provides safety training, trash bags, disposable safety vests and two roadside signs for each adopted section.

Groups that take part are asked to clean at least four times a year and stay committed for two years. The program also allows memorial adoptions, with roadside signs that can honor a living person or memorialize someone who has died.

ODOT says volunteer groups in the program collect about 25,000 bags of litter a year and save taxpayers about $280,000. Across Ohio, ODOT crews, inmates and volunteer groups together remove roughly 400,000 bags of trash from highways each year, at a cost of about $10 million annually.

For Holmes County, the numbers are modest in one sense and important in another. Nineteen bags of litter from one morning’s work is not a countywide solution, but it is a clear sign that a stretch of highway near Millersburg got cleaner because eight people showed up and did the work. That kind of steady upkeep helps keep the roadside more presentable for drivers, nearby residents and anyone whose first impression of the county comes from the shoulder of a state route.