After a long, cold winter, the first signs of spring are in the air, with mornings and cold afternoons, while the temperature rises at noon. These signs are what motivate most people to get out and start collecting what was hidden under the snow. It’s contagious!
In our last edition we announced the Spring Initiative for a Clean Lawrence announced by Mayor Daniel Rivera, and that he has been doing for the last three years, planning to hire 25 workers to carry it out. He also announced the hiring of another 25 workers to clean the graffiti that abounds in the city and as a bonus, place signs on streets that do not have them.
Mayor Rivera says all this is because he has been listening to residents’ concerns about trash, graffiti and the lost signs of streets. We are of the opinion that the real reason, after hearing these concerns for three consecutive years, is that this is an election year.
Meanwhile, Groundwork Lawrence is reporting that we are already less than a month away from the largest volunteer event of the year. Groundwork Lawrence is asking us to save the date of Saturday, April 22, where we will join with hundreds of people committed to keeping our city streets and parks clean, and this year, it’s being held on Earth Day!
Also, we call on the authorities to enforce all existing city ordinances regarding garbage, debris removal and garbage. The work of that day is worthless if the mountains of waste collected are going to remain static for a month waiting for the trucks that come to finish the work at the risk of being spread throughout the neighborhoods.
But all this effort will not be worth it unless we all take part in watching over the violators of these ordinances. If we want to keep the city and its neighborhoods clean, we all have to take part, not only in cleaning and sweeping the same sites year after year, but in monitoring and reporting to the violators who gets them dirty.
