By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
About 30 city volunteers spent Saturday morning picking up hundreds of pounds of trash along two major Del Rio thoroughfares.
Mayor Al Arreola and Del Rio First Lady Myrella Arreola and City Manager John Sheedy and his wife Cherry Sheedy led the volunteers. The volunteer trash pick-up crew also included a number of city department heads and staff.
After volunteers assembled at 9 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot outside the Val Verde Regional Medical Center’s Rural Health Clinic to pick up trash collection sacks donated by H-E-B, Sheedy said the effort was part of a wider initiative to clean up the city.
“This morning we’re going to continue another phase of our ‘Shine Del Rio’ campaign, part of our ‘Team Up to Clean Up’ effort. This is our first event, with city employees, and we’re going to continue this with other events. I’m excited,” Sheedy said.
He added the city will soon begin an effort that will allow the city’s elderly residents who would like assistance cleaning up their properties to fill out an application for the help.
“We’re going to set up a committee to review the applications and determine who needs the help, as well as ask for volunteers from the community to help us do the actual work. We’re excited to get this started,” Sheedy said.
Sheedy also encouraged property owners who are able to do so to keep their properties clean and free of trash.
Volunteers spent several hours walking along North Bedell and Dodson avenues, picking up a variety of trash, including plastic shopping bags, Styrofoam cups, beer bottles, aluminum drink cans, plastic water bottles, discarded clothing and fast food containers.
After the clean-up effort, City Communications and Marketing Director Anita Pruneda Mariner, who also participated in the event, reported that one-and-a-half dump truck loads of trash were collected.
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