It is a dirty job - but somebody's getting it done.

The Lawrence-Scioto County Solid Waste Management District has released statistics for its countywide litter collection program for the first half of the year, revealing that the agency is taking out the trash.

As of June 30, more than 481 miles of roadway in the two counties had been cleaned. The number of man hours worked totaled 7,798. Nearly 142,000 pounds of trash were cleaned up alongside area roadways.

"Normally from March until probably July, we work on county roads until the snakes get bad," Lawrence-Scioto County Solid Waste Management District Coordinator Chuck Yaniko said. "Then we concentrate on the highways until fall when we can get back on the county roads again."

Much of the work is done by inmate workers provided by the municipal courts in the two counties. Nearly 600 inmates opted to perform the community service.

"Without the judges helping us we could not get this done," Yaniko said.

"They're good about providing people to help us."

Some other statistics: 4,660 bags of trash were collected off roadways in the two-county area; 52 scrap tires were collected.

Nearly a dozen illegal dumpsites were cleaned. From those dumpsites, workers hauled off 20,705 pounds of trash.

Community organizations working in their own neighborhoods provided 1,026 hours of assistance. Of the five organized community efforts, 595 bags of trash were collected, totaling 17,856 pounds of garbage.

"A lot of communities are trying to police themselves and clean up their own areas," Yaniko said. "We need more of this. If we can keep the civic pride going, the whole county looks better, looks more attractive to business and industry."