We all like things to be clean. A clean home, a clean yard, a clean vehicle, a clean office or workspace, etc. And yes, it is true that most all of us often fall short of our goals in these areas, but you get the idea. As most of us see it, clean is cool. And, for those of us that are older, we have all heard the saying “cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
Quite often over the years, I have expressed my feelings through my columns regarding Bossier’s cleanliness. Honestly, I can never express my feelings in this area enough. The degree to which our city and parish leaders value the importance of Bossier putting its best foot forward in relation to being a clean place to live, work and play speaks volumes about Bossier Parish. As such, when people come to Bossier, whether they are travelers (just passing through), tourists (here to stay and visit for a while) or business people (here to conduct business, hold meetings or possibly locate their businesses here), they are surely impressed by the clean appearance. It shows that Bossier has pride and that Bossier cares. And for those of us here every day, it makes our lives better in countless ways. No doubt, as so many of us have seen in our travels, it is not this way everywhere.
When discussing this topic, I always like to start with Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington.
His commitment to the cleanliness of Bossier Parish goes back a long way. He was an integral part of Keep Bossier Beautiful (Clean City Committee) as a board member many years before he was Sheriff. And, since he has been elected Sheriff, he has continued to support Keep Bossier Beautiful and its clean community efforts in numerous ways. Sheriff Whittington also stages an annual “Operation Clean Sweep” whereby Bossier Sheriff’s deputies, staff, Young Marines and community volunteers pick up bags of trash at various locations throughout Bossier Parish. Wow! What a wonderful thing! I salute our Sheriff and his team (as well as the participating community volunteers and Young Marines) for being a part of this great event for many years!
About a year ago, Sheriff Whittington, Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker and the Bossier Parish Police Jury all came together to see that a full time executive director was put back in place for Keep Bossier Beautiful, after this position being vacant for many years. A few months ago, Lynn Bryan was selected for this position. Lynn is doing an exceptional job. And now with both Lynn and a very active and involved Keep Bossier Beautiful board of directors in place, Keep Bossier Beautiful has been named the recipient of the Keep Louisiana Beautiful Circle of Excellence Award for 2019-2020. And, through its efforts in a recent campaign, Keep Bossier Beautiful has also been awarded a $2,500 Keep Louisiana Beautiful Healthy Community Grant for 2020-2021 to raise awareness regarding Cigarette Butt Litter. Fantastic! Congratulations KBB! And again, how important this truly is to all of us!
Again, the appearance of a clean city and parish is not only important to our city and parish leaders, it is also important to our community at large. As such, I applaud all of our city and parish leaders for devoting such a high degree of effort with regard to our overall appearance and perception as a parish. Their efforts have already paid off for all of us all in many ways. And, their initiatives in this area will continue to pay off exponentially for us all in the years ahead.
Randy Brown is publisher of the Bossier Press-Tribune.
