On Saturday’s annual Saginaw Team Up to Clean Up Day, Mazzie Rudison joins 200 volunteers to undertake dozens of tasks, large and small.
He teams with Ernie Diaz and Reginald Williams III (son of the City Councilman), employees from a local utility company, PRH, to form a trio that tackles a thankless chore. The rear fence line of the new Dollar General parking lot at Genesee and Cherry, along Fourth Street, contains a strip of overgrowth with years of accumulated cans, bottles and fast food wrappers.
This swath is six feet wide but a football field long, so full of garbage that it cannot be mowed. The only thing to do is to fish out the containers one by one — everything from an Eight O’Clock coffee bag to a Five O’Clock vodka bottle — and fill heavy duty garbage bags that they hold in their other gloved hands.
“I live by the Rite Spot (diner at Fifth and Lapeer), and I walk here to Dollar General all the time,” Mazzie says. “Something needs to be done.”
He shrugs at the prospect of seeing inevitable new litter in weeks to come, and Ernie also pauses, saying, “People have to be accountable to themselves, I suppose. Besides, it’s a beautiful day out.”
Rain refrained from falling, in spite of overcast conditions that arrived late in the morning.
Their employers are Vernon and Letisha Randle and Cecil and LaQuanda Hoskins, owners of 5-year-old PRH Group along with I Heart Mac & Cheese. The men are electrical journeyman linemen and the women are in charge of the restaurant.
“This is an example of our goal to give back to the community,” Vernon Randle said afterward.
Mayor Brenda Moore rounded up donations, mainly for green Team Up tee-shirts. She encouraged all assembled on the City Hall steps, before they fanned out into the neighborhoods: “We always talk about how we want to improve the community. Now is the time to show it.”
Privately, she said volunteers realize that their efforts alone are limited to making a symbolic impact. Like in the fable, if you can’t reach and save all the starfish on the beach sand, you can begin by throwing one back into the water. Major tasks that require heavy equipment will be undertaken with $800,000 in reserved ARPA funds.
More than a dozen cleanup groups ranged from the Heritage Square Neighborhood Association to First Ward Community Center. From Camp Unity, elementary youngsters D’Quayvion Shephard, Douglas Agee and Doug-hari Agee joined their mom and aunt, Dorita Adams and her friend, Tiffani Latson. They cleaned the 5th/6th highway underpasses, and then headed along I-675 toward downtown.
“It’s fun,” says Douglas Agee, who is disappointed only that he was not finding pop cans with 10-cent deposits.
Adams and Latson said their involvement is inspired by volunteer Patrice Boulware, who has adopted both the northeast Unity Park and the Lawrence McKinney Vets Park. They compiled a list of eyesore properties they observed during their three hours of labor, many with abandoned houses, and presented it to city staff. They also made contracts with Larry Campbell from the Northeast Saginaw Neighborhood Association and Rob Brown from First Ward Community Center.
Any random tour of any city neighborhood will reveal locations where residents are mowing some of the 2,000 vacant lots, sometimes with adjacent ownership and sometimes in the middle of larger overgrown woodlots. Moore says a goal is more support for these individuals who perform these types of community maintenance.
In the meantime, in addition to enlisting in Team Up to Clean Up, the mayor suggests:
- Residents may take part in the Saginaw Beautification Awards, now through Aug. 10. Honor a neighbor for keeping up with lawn care and landscaping, or nominate one’s own self. Monthly winners receive recognition certificates and grab bags with donated items for property upkeep and improvements, and a single grand champion also will receive a tribute. Call (989) 399-1311, and select extension 3, or visit saginaw-mi.com/scenic/index.php.
- Obtain a tax-foreclosed vacant lot adjacent to your home from the Saginaw County Land Bank Authority for as little as $150. Create added lawn space, erect a garage, plant a garden and/or set up some play equipment for the kids. Phone (989) 792-6028 or see saginawcounty.com/departments/treasurer/land-bank.
- Refrain from tossing trash, ranging from fast-food containers to beer cans and booze bottles, out from car windows. Encourage family and friends to do the same.
