CLEARLAKE ? Clearlake is a cleaner, prettier place thanks to the efforts of Cathy Wilson and the 40-plus volunteers who participated in the Clearlake Street Cleaning Party II on Saturday. Volunteers spent more than three hours picking up debris, washing signs and cutting weeds throughout the city”s main thoroughfare areas.
“I was again surprised at the level of enthusiasm for this project,” Wilson, who spearheaded the effort, said. “People really want to live in a town that they can be proud of and many were eager to contribute to its beautification.”
This is the second year Wilson spearheaded an event to help clean up the city. The event was held in cooperation with the Keep California Clean campaign. “The city looks great. It looked good before but we still collected a lot of debris,” Wilson said. “There wasn”t a whole lot of trash out there, but we did end up collecting about 50 bags of litter. We are still expecting the street sweeper to come through and sweep up the little things we missed.”
Wilson said that Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lori Peters was instrumental in enlisting the participation of many area business owners. “There was a lot of support from chamber members and especially Lori Peters again this year. Lori was particularly helpful in coordinating with our local business owners and recruiting volunteers,” she said. “We had members of the chamber cleaning up and promoting the chamber”s flag fundraiser. It was nice to see areas cleaned up and then a nice new flag displayed at their business.”
Wilson said that the youth participation was wonderful as well. “Everybody worked really hard,” she said. “We had students from Lower Lake High School”s Upward Bound college prep program and they did a good job. Nick Logoteta had a group from the Lake County Youth Center and they cleaned all the signs at the park.”
Wilson extended appreciation for the assistance of Clearlake City Clerk Melissa Swanson who helped register participants again this year. She also commended Dan Griffin, of Griffin”s Furniture who she said took it upon himself to break out the weed eater and cut down the weeds in front of Highlands Park and the old Wiseda”s lounge on Lakeshore Drive.
Wilson had difficulty in recognizing all the volunteers. “There were just so many people who contributed to this clean up,” she said. “Second Cinema members were really concerned with the area behind Foods, Etc. and they did a lot of work there. A&B Collision took their own area and expanded our cleanup effort to include locations on Old Highway 53. They put in a lot of time and were the last ones in at the end of the day.
Clearlake Waste Solutions and Craig Timm, Jr. from Clearlake Public Works were very helpful as well collecting the waste bags after volunteers filled them up.”
Wilson continued, “And Steve Wilson was our master barbecuer for the day and kept everybody well fed with donations from Wal-Mart, Foods, Etc. and Ray”s.”
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
