John Scarffe, Central City. The Central City Clean Up event had to be postponed due to weather concerns, but it went on without a hitch as rescheduled on Friday May 24, 2019. The event began with registration at 9:30 a.m. in the Big-T Lot in front of City Hall.

Breakfast burritos, coffee and water were available for the volunteers, donated by the Grand Z Casino and the Z Empire. The casino also provided transportation for the event.

Clean Up Organizer Zeke Keeler said that postponing the event really hurt, but they are hoping to have 50 to 70 people. Most of the casinos in town have helped with the event.

At about 9:45 a.m., volunteers starting walking to their clean up area, and started dropping off groups on their routes. Volunteers were divided into five groups.

Group one took Gregory Street. Group two Lawrence Street, Group three Spring Street, Group four  Nevadaville Road and Pine Street and group five at Eureka and Prosser Streets.

Keeler said after the event that they have about 50 volunteers helping out. It was a good opportunity for the local community to enjoy the day. 

Public Works is very good at grabbing the trash as it comes in, so it’s not possible to know how much trash was collected, Keeler said. “Every year it gets so much better.”

On their first years they had so much trash. During following years, the amount has decreased. 

“It was a great endeavor,” Keeler said.

(Originally published in the May 30, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)