Adopt-a-Block neighborhood cleanup program in its 7th year

Groups can still sign up      

SYRACUSE — The City of Syracuse’s Adopt-a-Block program is now in its seventh year and anyone who would like to participate can still do so. City officials launched the program’s seventh year with an event at Kirk Park back on May 31 when Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh spoke outside the Seals Community Center. “We already live in a beautiful city, but we know that one of the things that detracts from that beauty is litter,” Walsh said to open his remarks. The May 31 announcement represented the first Adopt-a-Block cleanup of this year’s program, Ann Fordock, first deputy commissioner of the City of Syracuse Department of Public Works (DPW), told those gathered before introducing speakers. The program was created back in 2018, the mayor said. “The more hands we have helping out, the more beautiful our city is going to be.” As Walsh continued, he addressed those who might be wondering if the city doesn’t have people on staff who can help people pick up litter. The mayor recognized and praised the work of the city’s DPW, noting that he keeps the department “very busy.” “But the reality is, these guys need help, and it’s not their job to pick up your litter. They’ve got a lot of things that they need to do. There’s a lot of ways to clean up the city … and again that’s the idea behind Adopt-a-Block,” Walsh said. The only requirement in signing up for the program is taking responsibility for at least two blocks and conducting monthly cleanups of those respective areas. “Minimum two blocks, monthly cleanups, anybody can do it,” Walsh summarized. In her remarks to the gathering, Syracuse Common Councilor Patrona Jones-Rowser said she’s been cleaning up and working in this community for many years now. She joked that she’d like to think that city officials stole the Adopt-a-Block concept from her “but kudos to them for making it bigger than what I could have done.” “The Adopt-a-Block is so important because the start of community cleanups begin with the Earth Day cleanup, but, of course, that can’t be the stop, so the Adopt-a-Block program just pushes that a little bit further,” Jones-Rowser said. She suggested those interested should seek out organizations that are doing cleanups throughout the community via Facebook. They can also reach out to her and she can help connect interested residents with other organizations that are doing cleanups as well. If the litter isn’t cleaned up, it ends up in areas where we don’t want it, Kevin Spillane, executive director of the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, said in his remarks at the event. “So, if any of you have been out when we’ve had major rain events in the city, you see all that rainwater is washing into the storm sewers, while it also washes all that litter and debris that gets in its way,” Spillane said Litter not only clogs storm drains, which leads to street flooding, but also some of it also filters through and eventually gets washed into open waterways and “impacts the wildlife that depends on them,” he noted. Spillane went on to say that, even on a rainy Earth Day in April, “we still collected over 150,000 pounds of litter in those Earth Day events just this year … all that litter got disposed of the correct way. It didn’t end up in those waterways. It didn’t affect our community.” Others attending the May 31 announcement included Tony Williams, commissioner of the city’s Parks, Recreation & Youth Programs Department, and students from McKinley-Brighton Elementary School.