Staff report

Keep Suffolk Beautiful was honored as a President’s Circle Award Winner at the 51st National Conference of Keep America Beautiful.

The President’s Circle Award recognizes the high performance achieved by Suffolk in the standards of excellence set by Keep America Beautiful.

G. Raymond Empson, the president of Keep America Beautiful, Inc., said that Keep Suffolk Beautiful met these standards in 2004 by conducting an annual litter index, calculating a cost-benefit ratio, and engaging volunteers to take greater responsibility for the environment in their community.

&uot;We congratulate you for all these activities,&uot; said Empson.

&uot;We also salute you for carrying out the activities in Keep America Beautiful’s three core focus areas of litter prevention, waste reduction and beautification, and community improvement.&uot;

The Suffolk Clean Community Commission, established in the 1980’s, became a Keep America Beautiful affiliate in March of 2004.

The commission has 15 voting members – two representatives from each of the seven boroughs plus the president of the Federation of Garden Clubs.

The Suffolk Clean Community Commission promotes public interest in the general improvement of the environment; initiates, plans, and coordinates programs for litter control; and encourages the placing, planting, and preservation of trees, flowers, plants, shrubs, and other objects of ornamentation.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc. is a nonprofit organization with a network of local, state, and international affiliate programs aimed at educating individuals about litter prevention and showing them ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, and properly manage waste materials to improve their communities.

The chairman of the Suffolk Clean Community Commission, Hugh R. Cross, David Freeman, director of the City of Suffolk’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services, and Angela Mills, litter control coordinator with the City of Suffolk, attended the President’s Circle Award luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2 to accept the award.