City Notes: Time for a little spring cleaning

By Mark Wicks, Charles City Community Development Director

The sun is out, the grass is green and the jackets are getting lighter … Hello, spring! It’s about time you got here. It’s been a long, hard winter and we’re ready to get out and play!

The arrival of spring also means the inevitable spring cleaning. The city-wide spring cleanup collection is next week and city-wide garage sales in Charles City begin today, April 25, and run through the weekend as we clean up and clean out our homes. You also see lots of folks out cleaning up their yards from the winter debris. I’ve even seen a few mowing their lawns already.

Just as we need to clean up our homes and yards after winter and the early spring storms, we also need to do some spring cleaning of our community overall — our parks, trails, parking lots, sidewalks and storefronts. City crews do what they can with limited manpower, budgets and time, and the same could be said for some of our small business owners.

The easy thing would be to just sit back, say it’s their problem and do nothing but criticize. That does nothing, though, to help the problem.

This is OUR community. We have a say in how it looks and how we feel about it. If everyone just pitched in and did a little bit, it could make a huge difference.

I know I sound like a broken record, but first impressions really are lasting ones. How do you want your friends, neighbors, guests, customers or visitors to feel about your home, business or community? Please take a few minutes to rake the yard, sweep the driveway or sidewalk, or help out a neighbor who may not be able to do any of that themselves.

Take a bag with you next time you walk the trail and pick up some of that trash that’s collected over the winter. Grab your family, friends, co-workers or club members and spend an hour making a difference by helping to clean up a park or parking lot. Believe me, your town will look better and you will feel better about it as a result.

Community Revitalization organizes an Adopt-A-Lot effort every year, where different businesses, service clubs, church groups and even families or individuals “adopt” a public parking lot of their choice and help clean it up at least three times each spring and summer. There are still lots available to be adopted out or ways you can pitch in and help if you want.

Another all-volunteer effort helps keep our parking lot planters cleaned up, planted and beautiful. It wasn’t all that long ago that those so-called concrete “horse troughs” were neglected, full of old dirt and weeds, and used by some people as a trash or cigarette butt container.

One person made a difference by saying enough is enough and organizing some of her friends and other volunteers to spruce them up. For the past 17 years, volunteers have turned what was an eyesore into a beautiful community asset. The city assists with the dirt, but volunteers are the ones who make it happen.

On May 1, the Design Committee of Community Revitalization will be hosting an appreciation event for all of those parking lot planter volunteers, past and present, at 4 p.m. at the Charles City Senior Center. It’s just our way of saying thank you. Anyone who is interested in learning more about that project or getting involved is more than welcome to join us.

You can also call the Community Development Office at 641-228-2335 or email info@charlescitychamber.com for more information about the planters, Adopt-A-Lot or any of the other numerous volunteer efforts in Charles City.

Speaking of volunteers, everyone is encouraged to come help thank some of Charles City’s very best at the annual Community Volunteer Recognition event this Friday, April 26, at 8 a.m. at the Senior Center. This is a chance for a variety of non-profit organizations to recognize their volunteers of the year, including Community Revitalization, the Chamber of Commerce, our schools, TLC: The Learning Center, the Foster Grandparents and the Senior Center.

The Man and Woman of the Year honorees will be announced, along with the recipients of several other special volunteer awards. There will be a light breakfast served, with the doors opening at 7:30 a.m. Tickets are $5 and available ahead of time at the Community Development Office at 401 North Main St., or at the door the day of the event.

Something else to consider regarding spring cleaning — Charles City is expecting a number of guests in the next few months who will be checking out our community for the first time and even grading us on our appearance, amenities, friendliness, customer service and overall first impressions.

Community Revitalization is involved with a Main Street Iowa District Exchange with Hampton where each town will be sending representatives to the other to do the above-mentioned evaluation. They will then complete a report on their findings, which each town will share with the other later this year.

Another group of visitors coming in June for our Whitewater festival are two busloads of folks from the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids areas. Iowa AARP is organizing those buses to showcase what Charles City has to offer as part of our application to become a certified Rural Livable Community through AARP. They are just some of the guests we expect to see, and visitors we hope to draw, to Charles City this spring and summer.

It’s up to all of us to help do our part to leave them with a great impression of our community. Each of us can make a difference in our own way, big or small.

On behalf of Community Revitalization and the Chamber, I thank you in advance for being a difference-maker!