By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A big clean-up effort will be underway this weekend in downtown St. Joseph as the city gets set to welcome the NCAA Division II Women’s Elite Eight Tournament to town.
Terry Turbak, chair of the Beautify St. Joseph Committee, says volunteers will meet at 4th and Francis Streets at 10 o’clock Saturday morning, then fan out around the Civic Arena and the old hotel to spruce up the downtown.
“We have quite a few people that were interested and very supportive,” Turbak tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Also, all the downtown businesses are participating by cleaning up their areas on that day, too. So, we’ll have kind of a clean sweep of the whole downtown area. It will be really nice.”
Turbak says this clean-up effort is important as the city prepares to welcome teams and their fans to the tournament.
“Well, first of all, we hope that we put our best foot forward for the tournament as far as the city goes and our appearance of the city,” Turbak says.
Appearance is important and not just with a major tournament coming to town. Turbak points to the results of a recent survey that disclosed many St. Joseph residents have concerns about the city’s appearance.
“We’re trying to make a difference there,” Turbak says. “And then also to raise awareness about littering, about encouraging people not to throw things on the ground, not to leave a mess behind.”
Turbak says volunteers do this, because they care about the city.
“We really love St. Joe and we want St. Joe to appear cleaner and more attractive to visitors that come here and also to the residents, because there are a lot of residents that don’t know what to do and aren’t aware of the litter problem as far as how can they make a difference, what difference can they make?”
Again, volunteers will gather at 4th and Francis at 10 o’clock Saturday morning to begin the clean-up effort.
Click HERE for more information about the downtown clean-up as well as the Beautify St. Joseph Committee.