Published: May 08, 2008 11:31 am         

Frequent cleanups keep trash down

The latest neighborhood association to conduct a neighborhood cleanup on Saturday will be the Center City Neighborhood Association.

Some who already have conducted cleanups this spring have noticed less trash.

“We did not need a Dumpster,” Ward 6 Alderman Steve Nichols said about the cleanup in Holiday Hills.

He said the trash that residents picked up fit inside Holiday Hills Neighborhood Association president’s Greg Shepherd’s city toter.

Nichols said the little trash found “says something,” whether it reflects neighbors and drivers being more conscientious about littering and/or the city’s new garbage toters also having an impact in keeping garbage contained.

The city placed a Dumpster at Douglas Park recently for the Rabbittown neighborhood groups’ cleanup efforts.

Rabbittown Neighborhood Association member Mary Ann Pettigrew said the group this year “noticed quite a difference in the alleys.”

She largely attributes the less trash seen to the new toters and no city garbage pickups in alleys any longer.

“It’s been a positive,” Pettigrew said.

However, there still have been problems with toters left on front porches, she added.

The Rabbittown group started neighborhood cleanups about three years ago. Normally about a dozen people help out for two cleanups a year, each spring and fall.

“It does get rid of a lot. In certain areas we expect to see quite a bit (of trash),” Pettigrew said.

The Center City Neighborhood Association will be the next group to use the various yard tools and supplies provided through the city’s PRIDE Grows trailer for a neighborhood cleanup.

The trailer will be parked outside the home of neighborhood association president Adam Aull, Geographic Information System manager and Danville Area Transportation Study director for the city.

The association includes homes in the 1100 and 1200 blocks of Oak, Franklin and Walnut streets from English to Voorhees streets.

The group, which started last year, meets at 7 p.m. the first Thursday of the month at Garfield Elementary School. Attendance has been about 10-15 people.

“We did an alley walk last fall,” association member Sue Harden said.

Group members will walk along the neighborhood streets and alleys on Saturday to pick up any trash others and even the city’s street sweepers haven’t addressed along the curbs, she said.

She said the group is trying to be more proactive in making the neighborhood look as nice as possible.

Harden grew up in the area where she now lives in the 1200 block of Franklin Street.

She said even though there are more rental properties than there used to be, residents should still care about their properties and getting to know their neighbors.

“You just don’t know your neighbors anymore,” Harden said.

FYI

The Center City Neighborhood Association will have a neighborhood cleanup from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The PRIDE Grows trailer will be at 1219 Oak St.