Keeping Madison Ave. clean & tidy

[Melissa Page]

Before the February meeting, I met with Joe Beno, head of city Public Services, and we went over every detail of refuse pickup, litter, & grafitti. At our February meeting we had some great discussion on the current city services and business/landlord roles and responsibilities when it comes to keeping Madison clean and tidy. Info to share:

• Refuse crew runs the full strip of Madison on M, W, F to look for any full trash cans. If you see full trash cans please call in to city refuse at 252-4322.

• Street sweeper runs the entire Madison strip every Friday as long as it is above freezing temperature. Note: there is no time where Madison does not have cars parked on it due to overnight residences and daytime businesses so they can only work around the cars. Never sweep garbage into street!

•Grafitti- don’t count on someone else reporting markings to the party responsible for removal and that depends on what is actually marked:
a.) City will only remove from public property: utility pole, signs, sidewalks, muni buildings, meters. If they know about it they work to remove it within 24 hours. Call 529-6800
b.) If markings are on post office box or AT&T boxes it is the responsibility of these businesses to remove them! We should call them not the city. Call city if they do not respond in timely manner.
c.) Any markings on private property must be worked out between the business owner and the landlord.

The city may have a few extra trash cans and mini bike racks (like seen on Detroit meters) that can be added to Madison Ave. Beladubby has asked for a bike rack and Goddess Blessed recommended a trash can in front of Harding Middle School. I will follow up. Any other requests you can identify?

Keep Lakewood Beautiful’s annual clean up event is Saturday, April 25th in the a.m. MAMA will be participating. I will be rallying for it the entire month of April in the Lakewood Observer and through our networking. Residents, young and old, and Madison Avenue businesses will be recruited. To give out to volunteers, MAMA is considering rounding up donations for door prizes or some sort of coupon that can be redeemed at any MAMA member business. (See my other post for what kind of coupon could work).

Questions, comments, ideas???