Residents of the Lakeside neighborhood in Mount Pleasant enjoy pizza at Wells Brothers after spending a few hours cleaning up alleys and picking up trash along roadways. Wells Brothers donated the pizza and soda to support their neighbors’ efforts. Benjamin House, of Kenosha, came up to help his nephew clean up the alley behind his home. “We need something like this in certain areas in Kenosha,” he said. “This is a good idea.”Marcus Weams (r), 17, helped his friend, Andres Arroyo, 15, clean up the backyard of a residence in the Lakeside neighborhood Saturday in Mount Pleasant. Weams said he liked helping the neighborhood. “It’s nice to see people out helping,” he said. Mount Pleasant Community Development Coordinator Logan Martin agreed. “This has been a very successful morning,” he said surveying the full dumpsters and piles of tires and TVs volunteer crews collected.Approximately 100 people – neighbors, police officers, volunteers – took the Lakeside neighborhood by storm Saturday morning for the first organized clean up effort there. Organized by Mount Pleasant police Officer Nicole Schiro in partnership with Racine Alderperson Melissa Kaprelian-Becker for America in Bloom, the goal of the clean up was to bring people together. “We have tons of people!” Schiro said, beaming. “I could not be more impressed with the number of neighbors that came out to help.”MPPD Chief Tim Zarzecki (c) helps unload bags of garbage cleaned up from alleys between Racine and Howe Street. Two, 24-yard dumpsters were filled with refuse after a group of about 100 people went through the neighborhood to help clean it up. Jerry Walker and Shenee Brownlee – along with their children – participated, but Walker said neighbors in the area are typically ready to lend a helping hand. Still, he said, Schiro’s enthusiasm for improving the area is contagious, so he welcomed the clean-up effort. Brownlee hopes there are additional clean-up events scheduled because getting the alleys clean matters. “The fronts of houses look nice, but the alleys are where the problems are,” she said. “Getting those clean and getting people to stop dumping tires and TVs there will really help.”
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