Milton’s Adopt-A-Road program is being adopted itself.

Milton Grows Green, a city-sanctioned volunteer committee focusing on green initiatives, will run Adopt-A-Road and similar programs.

“We are seeking certification for Milton Grows Green to become the Keep America Beautiful and Keep Georgia Beautiful affiliate for Milton, and become involved in all of the programs typically offered by those organizations that are primarily focused on beautification/litter control and trash/recycling issues,” said Milton Grows Green spokesperson Jon McPhail.

The Adopt-A-Road program is a litter-removal campaign to get debris off of city roads and swales to improve environmental quality in Milton. It was originally funded by Fulton County, and Keep North Fulton Beautiful, a nonprofit located in Sandy Springs, was running this and other programs for the county.

But once the new cities began forming, the county was no longer interested in or able to fund these types of programs, McPhail said. Alpharetta and Roswell already run their own programs.

While Keep North Fulton Beautiful continued to offer services, Milton Grows Green members wanted to bring the program in house and reinvigorate it.

“The biggest difference is in the local effort from volunteer Milton citizens and the local control over the program,” McPhail said.

“It will let us provide accountability, seeing that the roadsides really are cleaned regularly, and offering controls over which roads are selected, some being more appropriate for volunteers to clean than others. We also have our own signage that is Milton-specific, helping to build community pride and identity, and providing branding for the MGG Committee and its initiatives.”

The program will have lower costs because of the direct efforts of volunteers running it without a salaried administrative layer involved, he said.

Information: Gina Schwendel, MGG’s program coordinator, (770) 310-6679 or www.cityofmiltonga.us/ forms/adopt-a-road.html.