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Blue Ribbon Awards Winner Highlight: Jeff Pollitt, Clean Tahoe Program

  Tahoe Chamber  |   March 13, 2018   |   Chamber NewsCommunity News

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Each year the Tahoe Chamber’s Blue Ribbon Awards honors seven businesses, organizations or individuals for their achievements, community contributions, and milestones. At the 2017 awards ceremony, Jeff Pollitt with the Clean Tahoe Program was awarded for his excellence in public service. We recently got the opportunity to catch up with Jeff and the Clean Tahoe Program team to learn about their latest projects and how they’re continuing to give back to the South Shore community.


Since you won the Customer Service (Public Agency) award in 2017, what events or programs has your organization completed or is currently involved in?

Our organization continues to place a strong emphasis on serving the City of South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County efficiently and with excellent customer service in all of our litter cleanup programs.  Our current programs include: cleaning litter from the roadways and neighborhoods, collecting illegally dumped items, issuing warning notices for trash containment violations, strengthening partnerships to address the issue of animals accessing garbage in our community, and continuing our Be Bear Aware outreach efforts.

We are also currently planning our “Spring Cleanup” which is a neighborhood litter cleanup event scheduled for Saturday, May 12. We hope to recruit businesses as well as individuals throughout South Tahoe to participate in that event and help kick off the summer season with a sparkling clean, litter-free town.

What are some of the future goals you have for yourself and the Clean Tahoe Program?

The Clean Tahoe Program is particularly interested in addressing the sources of litter problems in South Lake Tahoe.  One of our current goals is to work with community partners and local jurisdictions to address the issue of animals, especially bears, having access to garbage.  It has unfortunately become a very serious problem in South Tahoe and is harmful to the bears and contributes to litter in our community.

In addition, one of my goals is to elevate the importance of the need for everyone in our community to give back to Lake Tahoe and to contribute to having a clean and litter-free town.

What has helped you to be recognized as one of the most standout non-profit organizations in Tahoe?

The dedication and hard work of our field crewmembers, Sergio Partida, and myself are what really sets Clean Tahoe apart.  We work extremely hard, doing a job that isn’t always particularly pleasant, and we continue to do it with a smile and a focus on providing great service.  In addition, we have an overarching culture at our organization to provide efficient and exemplary service to our community – all of our staff and our Board love Lake Tahoe and are committed to giving back to this special place.

I also love that our organization has a really focused mission.  We’re completely dedicated to addressing litter problems so we’re able to give all our energy to that. It’s really a great organization!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We’re proud to be able to say that South Tahoe is an extremely clean community,  especially considering the high numbers of visitors we’ve had in recent years.  Litter will always be an issue in any community, and we’re certainly willing to pick it up, but we’re also committed to addressing the source of the problem and creating a culture in South Tahoe where we all contribute to keeping our environment clean and beautiful.


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