SpringfieldNewsSun.com

An agreement to allow jail inmates to pick up litter on I-70 will save the state cash while allowing the Clark County Waste Management District to earn it.

The Ohio Department of Transportation will pay the district $8,400 to supervise PRIDE inmates cleaning up trash for 120 hours this year and another 120 hours in the spring.

"It saves us time and money," said John Balzer, Clark County's ODOT manager.

The state will save more than $50,000. In the year ending in July, ODOT workers picked up 4,000 bags of trash on the interstate, he said.

Inmates collected more than 40 bags on Friday on a two-mile stretch south of Springfield, said Deputy Jim Hollopeter, one of the PRIDE supervisors.

They picked up mostly plastic bottles and paper but also trashed golf balls, diapers and parts of tires.

"You name it, we found it out there," he said.

The inmates will clean the county's entire 29 miles of interstate once in the fall and again in the spring.

PRIDE —Providing Responsibilities for Inmates through Duties for the Environment — workers often get time off their jail sentences for such tasks.

They also pick up litter on roads throughout the county and Springfield — 58 miles since January, Hollopeter said.

Government departments are challenged to do more with less these days, said Debra Karns, director of the Waste Management District.

"We're always looking for creative ways to save money and make money," she said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0355 or derwin@coxohio.com.