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Citizens can help make Springfield beautiful

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD Last year the first Clean Up Springfield Day sponsored by Keep Springfield Beautiful involved 3,000 people, 32 full dumpsters and the removal of 170 tons of trash.

This year organizers hope to top that accomplishment by involving more people, businesses and organizations at the second clean up on May 3.

At the kick-off press conference for Keep Springfield Beautiful at American International College on Wednesday, Mayor Domenic Sarno recalled his participation in last year's clean-up and said that keeping Springfield clean is one of his administration's "core foundation beliefs."

"You have to be in an aesthetically good environment and sometimes we take that for granted," he added.

Last year, 42 miles of streets in the city were cleaned as well as one mile of railroad tracks, 17 playgrounds and two miles of shoreline. Ten junk cars and 200 tires were removed. Nearly five tons of aluminum and steel and four tons of electronics were recycled.

James Morton, president of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, said the goals for this year's clean- up include incorporating children into the effort to provide "lessons in properly taking care of the city they are going to inherit."

Morton said the Keep Springfield Beautiful organization wants to recruit more individual and organization volunteers and business sponsors to make it the largest clean-up effort in the nation.

He added the group is doing an index of needs to allocate the clean-up resources to the parts of the city that need it the most.

He called the goals "ambitious but accomplishable."

Key business sponsors, such as Baystate Health, MassMutual, the Springfield Museum of Science, Health New England, Waste Management, Starbucks, American International College and the Joseph Freedman Company, among others, were acknowledged at the press event. Steve Bradley, the vice president of government and community relations for Baystate Health, pledged his company's support for the upcoming clean-up.

New business partner Covanta Energy, the company that operates the garbage incinerator for the city of Springfield and specializes in generating energy from trash, announced its involvement in this year's event at the press conference.

To participate in this year's event, contact project Manager Ivette Cruz at 866-5044 or by logging onto http://keepspringfieldbeautiful.org/pages/1.html.