Cleaning up Monessen

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

The streets of Monessen are a little less cluttered thanks to city officials and volunteers who took time over the weekend to beautify their community.

A city-wide cleanup, spearheaded by Mayor Matt Shorraw and Councilwoman Lois Thomas, was held Saturday in conjunction will an electronic recycling event.

Work started around 9 a.m. at Ninth Street and Sixth Street parks and continued throughout main city streets.

Recycling was collected from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday behind the city garage, where residents dropped off electronics, newspapers, cardboard, fluorescent tubes and other hard-to-recycle items.

Shorraw said he and Thomas began brainstorming before the pandemic hit in March, but plans were put on hold once the virus started to spread and school shut down.

“We are trying to pick up where we left off,” he said. “Usually this is something the school helps us with and serves as a great community building event, but we had to push it back because of the virus.”

At least 10 residents showed up Saturday to help.

Shorraw worked at Sixth Street Park and Thomas handled the area of Ninth Street Park and Knox Avenue.

“In my area, we worked for about two and a half hours and collected two large contractor bags full of general litter,” Shorraw said. “I am not sure how many bags Lois filled, but I am hearing a lot of compliments from residents, so I am sure it went well.

“I cleaned the same area about two years ago and there was not as much garbage as there was the last time I personally did this, so that’s a good thing.”

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