Rotary Club gets off to a clean start

Four times a year, the Rotary Club of Longboat Key gets a little trashy on the weekends. 

Once a quarter, the club gathers early on Saturday morning, armed with grabbers, trash bags and fluorescent vests, ready to clean up their stretch of Gulf of Mexico Drive. It starts at the entrance to the Resort at the Longboat Key Club and ends at Country Club Shores V. On Jan. 16, 10 club members met at Chart House before splitting into two groups that would eventually meet in the middle. 

As part of the Florida Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program, the club is obligated to quarterly trash collection in return for two roadside signs. 

Usually the club gathers about 40 pounds of trash from their stretch of Gulf of Mexico Drive, but as the two groups picked their way down either side, the bags weren't getting as full this time. 

"I think because there are less people back for season there is less stuff," president Nancy Rozance said. "But there was a lot in October." 

There was less trash to pick up, but there were still plenty of cigarette butts, which made up the top category of refuse as they get tossed out of car windows. Also picked up were plastic bottles, tiny bits of plastic and a golf ball from the nearby Longboat Key Club course. However, the biggest item was a Zephyrhills water jug, likely one that fell off a maintenance or construction truck as they drove down the island.