Major Clearlake cleanup event planned April 19

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CLEARLAKE – One Clearlake resident is taking on a city cleanup project, which the City Council on Thursday night voted to support with staff help and resources.


Cathy Wilson went to the council with her proposal to organize the cleanup, which is scheduled to take place along Lakeshore and Olympic drives on April 19.


Wilson told the council that the cleanup is based on the Keep California Beautiful campaign.


The idea, which has support from the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, is to put together teams of people to pick up trash, pull weeds, sweep sidewalks, knock down cob webs on vacant buildings and wash down an estimated 137 street signs, said Wilson.


Wilson has so far done an amazing amount of preparation. She has spoken with Bruce McCracken of Clearlake Waste Solutions about providing a street sweeper on the event day, and added that McCracken said he would send a truck to pick up the collected bags of trash from the cleanup's headquarters at Austin Park.


In addition, she has contacted Caltrans about spraying weeds at Highway 53 at Lakeshore, the county's transit services about cleaning their covered rider enclosures (which is done monthly but will be done specially for the event) and is drafting a letter to area merchants asking them to participating in the event by cleaning up their storefronts to the street.


“Maybe we can all do this together,” Wilson said of the volunteer effort.


She said there will be waivers of liability for volunteers, who she'll be seeking out in the next month.


Signups also will take place the day of the event, which will get started at about 9 a.m. and last until between noon and 1 p.m.


Wilson also suggested the city could repaint crosswalks, many of which aren't in bad shape but could use some sprucing up.


On April 19, Wilson plans to assign participants to teams, which will work along the streets accompanied by small pickups, which will bring supplies – drinking water, trash bags, first aid kits – and also pick up trash.


Local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts may also take part, and would work in Austin Park, said Wilson.


“Kudos to you for getting involved,” said Council member Judy Thein. “I applaud you for wanting to do this project.”


Thein asked about Wilson's plans to clean up Lakeshore Drive. Wilson said she intends to start at the intersection with Highway 53 and have groups work along lengths of the street. If they have time, they'll also do feed streets. But if they don't have enough people, Wilson said they'll concentrate on pickup up trash.


“When it's all said and done I hope the public will notice and they'll realize we're all working together,” said Wilson.


She said her focus is to encourage business owners to take part and think about the areas in front of their stores.


Overton asked City Administrator Dale Neiman about putting up city signs to make the day safer for volunteers, which Neiman said they could do.


The council voted unanimously to authorize staff to help the effort.


For more information contact the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, 994-3600.


E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


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