Neighborhood unites together for cleanup
FAIRFIELD — Saturday morning in downtown Fairfield saw couches being tossed into Recology trucks, along with rugs and many other items that neighborhood residents didn’t want any longer.
This was the inaugural Downtown Neighborhood Clean-up, hosted by the Fairfield Quality of Life Task Force.
“We weren’t sure how this was going to go over,” said Dawn LaBar, a legislative analyst and special projects manager for the city of Fairfield. “But it went wonderfully.”
The blocks surrounding Berean Baptist Church, host of the event, were the target areas.
“If we don’t do it now, people will be dumping these things during the week and the problem is that this doesn’t get picked up by the normal trash pickup,” she said.
“Property owners could leave out on the lawn what they don’t want and we will pick it up,” said Fairfield Police Officer Jeff Osgood.
The project brought together a variety of volunteers from the community, including the City of Fairfield, Berean Baptist Church, Matt Garcia Foundation and Fairfield Professional Firefighters Association, Fairfield Police Department along with Republic Services.
“Republic Services brought out trucks which they drive around and pick trash up with then bring it back,” said LaBar. “They are donating all the equipment and time to do this.”
“The great thing is that this is a way to get people out with their neighbors to make the neighborhood function better,” Osgood said.
Many people have contacted the city asking about ways they can help cleanup neighborhoods, but getting rid of what LaBar calls “blight” means working with many parts of the city’s government and volunteers to help with cleanup.
“The Task Force is here to help make that happen,” she said.
She considers blight anything that makes the area look run down, uncared for and unkept.
“The problem is that people see an area like that and they think we don’t care, then the neighborhood continues to not cleanup,” she said.
About 40 volunteers showed up to help grab trash, run trucks, haul carts around and put in the time to make it happen.
Maria Rodriguez, along with her daughter Vanessa, and Juan Guerrero, all of Fairfield, came out in the morning on Saturday to lend a hand for clean up. It was the first time for them cleaning up in the neighborhood.
“We wanted to do this because we thought its good to help the community,” Vanessa Rodriguez said.
“We are really enjoying this and people are really enthusiastic about getting rid of stuff,” said Sharon Mayne, a volunteer from Berean Baptist Church.