Downtown cleanup precedes Heritage Day

The chamber will ask if the city can provide weed killer.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce will remove weeds and cover graffiti in the downtown area.
Audrey Null, director of the chamber, said volunteers and others will try to remove this rainy year's bumper crop of weeds.
Property owners who have had graffiti sprayed on their buildings can allow the chamber crew to paint over it.
The cleaning and weed removal event from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 18 is being held in advance of the city's Heritage Day that will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 25.
The chamber also had a cleanup day in May.
Null said another reason for the effort is, "because that area just looks seedy."
Between now and Sept. 18, Null said she'll make up a master list of areas that need attention.
Getting help
The chamber expects to get some helpers from criminal defendants who must perform community service.
Mayor Larry DeJane has said the city doesn't have money for weed control, but Null said she would ask the city to provide some weed killer.
Null said she wants to resolve the question of who is to maintain the many landscaped areas created when the city renovated its downtown many years ago.
"Nobody seems to be doing it," she said.
DeJane has said the city didn't want the landscaped areas because someone would have to take care of them.
The chamber wanted a parade on Heritage Day but canceled that because city officials said it would require police overtime. Still, antique vehicles will be parked downtown.
Null also said she would talk to the city about what can be done about a hay wagon that has been used to offer rides on Heritage Day. The city has said firefighters can't use a city truck as they have in the past to tow the wagon.
wilkinson@vindy.com