Boulder City fall cleanup day brings sense of community pride

Tiffany Gibson

Boulder City residents Ron Bordigioni and Connie Ferraro pick up weeds on Adams Boulevard Saturday for the first annual Boulder City Fall Cleanup.

By Tiffany Gibson (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009 | 4:05 p.m.

BOULDER CITY — Residents and city officials gathered today to participate in the first annual Fall Cleanup Day in more than a decade.

Public Information Officer Rose Ann Miele said the first fall cleanup took place in 1998 and consisted of volunteers planting trees. She said the city council opted to bring cleanup day back because maintenance contracts have been cut and the city is in need of preservation.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the funds to hire maintenance, so we’re asking them (the community) if they want to come out and do some maintenance,” Miele said.

City Manager Vicki Mayes brought the idea up to council members, Miele said.

Mayes said bringing the cleanup day back would help assist the small maintenance team for Boulder City. She said the team is made up of only seven employees, therefore, residents should help out with the city cleaning when they can.

The Fall Cleanup Day began at 7:30 a.m. at the Boulder Creek Golf Course. The Boulder City Rotary Club served pancakes and breakfast to participates before they began cleaning for four hours.

Resident Ron Bordigioni said City Council member Duncan McCoy’s mention of a complementary breakfast inspired him to get involved with the project.

“He mentioned pancakes and I said, ‘I’ll work for pancakes,’” Bordigioni joked.

City Council member Linda Strickland said she was taking an active approach towards improving the community. Strickland worked today on Adams Boulevard near Garrett Middle School. She said she was removing rocks from the sidewalk, so children wouldn’t slip and fall.

“You have a sense of community pride if you’re out here working,” Strickland said.

But she said she hasn’t seen very many people participating.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get the turnout we were expecting,” Strickland said. “People talk about how they’ve done it before and hundreds of people would come out.”

Strickland said old age could be a contributing factor as to why very few people were participating.

“Money Magazine said that 49 percent of our population is over 50, so maybe it’s just old age,” she said.

Bordigioni also worked on Adams Boulevard. He said this weekend wasn’t a good day to hold the cleanup because of all the other events going on.

Connie Ferraro, the wife of former mayor Bob Ferraro, said she expected to see more people too.

Bordigioni said he doesn’t think age is why very few people participated. He said he worked alongside some people in their 90s earlier this morning.

“I think they should do this once a month during this period of time when we’re financially strapped,” Bordigioni said.