In May 2026, Step Up Ozark took on cleaning up Harris Road in Ozark.
Although it is only a little over a mile, this residential road had accumulated large amounts of litter.
Why Here?
Along Harris Road are three apartment complexes and a group home for special needs adults. The road is one of the major connectors between Andrews Avenue and Highway 27 in Ozark.
We felt the residents of that area deserved a cleaner place to live, so we stepped up to clean the area.
How did it get so bad?
Several reasons contributed to the disarray along Harris Road. Inadequate supervision by the owners of the townhouses in the area allowed litter to accumulate instead of being picked up regularly by maintenance crews.
A large homeless encampment added to the issue — residents in the area observed homeless individuals opening trash bags searching for salvageable items. Although most of the homeless individuals in the area have moved on, the trash remains.
Motorists along the road, seeing an area already covered in litter, feel emboldened to throw their litter out — the presence of large amounts of litter sends the message “it’s okay to do this here.”
Harris Road also sits along a boundary between city and county property. Typically, we see more litter in these areas.
The Cleanups
We’ve conducted one cleanup along Harris Road so far.
At our first cleanup along this road, 17 volunteers gathered on a Saturday morning to start working on the road. We were joined by Ozark City Councilman Bryan Macario and by Ozark Police Department officer Juan Alvarez.
In total, we collected 26 bags of trash, four tires, two televisions, two toilets, broken pieces of furniture, broken plastic bins, lots of cardboard, and much more.
What We Couldn’t Get
Large amount of poison ivy in the area kept us from getting as deep into the woodline as we wanted. At one point along the road, there is a steep gully that has accumulated a lot of trash.
Recent wet conditions made it difficult to get down into that gully, so we’ll come back when the weather is drier to try to collect that.
Next Steps
We are planning an additional cleanup in this area on June 30th, 2026.
Gratitude
- We’d like to offer thanks to Ozark City Councilman Bryan Macario and Ozark Police Department Officer Juan Alvarez for their time and effort helping us on-site with our cleanup.
- We’d like to offer very special thanks to the 17 volunteers who made this cleanup possible:
- Adam
- Lydia
- Jana’e
- Jude
- Moses
- Janet
- Robyn
- Suzette
- Tina
- Deborah
- Bill
- Megan
- Bryan
- Juan
- Brenda
- Willow
- Tabitha
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