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Streetscape beautification program is 8 to noon May 30
YOUNGSTOWN
About 600 volunteers will spend part of cleaning up and beautifying downtown and nearby areas as part of Youngstown CityScape’s 18th annual Streetscape program.
“Our program clearly makes a visible difference in what people see downtown,” said Sharon Letson, CityScape’s executive director. “It’s important to pay attention to the details, and having a nice-looking downtown is important. It has an economic impact.”
The event will take place from 8 a.m. to noon May 30.
Work includes planting flowers and shrubs, mulching, trimming trees and removing debris.
Focus areas for this year’s beautification and cleanup efforts include downtown along West and East Federal streets, John Young Memorial, the Police Officer Memorial at Front Street and South Avenue, Wick Park, the Choffin Career & Technical Center hillside and city hall.
The program kicked off its fundraising efforts Friday during a breakfast at the D.D. & Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center at Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens.
The organization usually raises about $50,000 annually for the Streetscape program.
It announced that the Youngstown Foundation has donated $35,000. The money will be used to help fund the beautification program and CityScape’s operations, though how much will go toward each hasn’t been determined, Letson said.
“If we’re to continue to do the work we’ve done for 17 years, we need the funds to do it,” said Scott Schulick, Streetscape’s co-chairman.
Also, the organization unveiled its updated website — youngstowncityscape.org — that allows, for the first time, people to donate to CityScape online.
Those interested in volunteering can do so through the website, sending an email to info@youngstowncityscape.com, calling CityScape’s office at 330-742-4040 or contacting the agency on its Facebook wall.
This year’s Streetscape theme is “Bloom or Bust.”
“After this brutal winter, we thought it was an appropriate theme,” Letson said.
Mayor John A. McNally praised the organization’s work.
“The work you do downtown is the model used by neighborhood groups and homeowners” throughout the city, he said.