Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – Looking for a way to do something good for your community?

You won’t find an easier opportunity than this weekend, April 4 and 5, here in St. John when the annual St. John Cleanup Day is held.

St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe (left) and L’Observateur Publisher Kevin Chiri act blinded by the reflection of all the plastic trash bags in the back of Boe’s vehicle, which are being offered to the public the rest of this week, to join in the Keep St. John Beautiful cleanup weekend. L’Observateur has teamed with the parish to put 5,000 bags in their publication today, while the parish has provided 20,000 more bags available at various sites this week. (Staff photo by Robin Shannon.)

Sponsored by Keep St. John Beautiful, an anti-litter organization here in the parish, there will be numerous places throughout the parish this weekend where cleanup projects will be underway.

Anyone who wants to join in is welcome to show up at any of the cleanup areas and get to work.

“A little bit of effort by at least a few people will go a long way towards the beauty of the community,” said Judge Tom Daley, who started Keep St. John Beautiful nearly 12 years ago.

Daley sees a clean community as one of the basics of any region, and has used the local group as a vehicle to reach out into different areas of St. John to clean up, and fix up.

“I always wanted to do something to help the community simply look better,” he said. “Our group actually started as the St. John Shade Tree organization. But now we focus more on anti-litter efforts.”

This Friday and Saturday, there will be various sites already scheduled for cleanup, with others coming on line.

Some of the scheduled projects are:

—The LaPlace Rotary Club will work on Friday afternoon at the LaPlace Library, as well as cleaning up as much of Highway 51 as they can get to.

—The Highway 51 Civic Association will also be doing that stretch of roadway on Saturday.

—Rev. Forall Bering has joined the work on Saturday to take on the new road in Reserve linking Airline Highway and River Road, right near the Dupont plant.

—The 4H Club in the area will be working to clean up the Reserve boat launch.

—The Belle Terre Civic Association will be working in that area of St. John throughout the subdivision on Saturday.

—Boy Scouts will be doing the Ridgefield Canal banks from Dominican Drive to Fairway Drive.

St. John Sheriff’s Office has dedicated its workers on Friday to the levee in Reserve, and the courthouse on the West Bank.

“Sheriff (Wayne) Jones has dedicated his work crews on Friday to do cleanup projects to help us,” Daley said.

The judge also had some encouraging words for new Parish President Bill Hubbard, who has already taken on some St. John eyesores for cleanup, as well as working on improving the canals so there is better drainage.

“Sheriff Jones and Bill Hubbard are both neat freaks, like me,” said Daley with a laugh. “And I like that since Bill has really made cleaning up the area a focus.”

The parish has purchased 25,000 “Keep St. John Clean” bags that are being distributed for people to use this weekend. L’Observateur has inserted a bag in each of today’s daily newspapers, so look for it, and use it to pick up trash in your neighborhood.

Anyone wanting bags to go out on a cleanup project can find them at the parish assessor’s office, the parish service center, the DMV, and local businesses Quick Stop Car Wash, J. Albert’s and Brock’s Automotive in Reserve.

Any group who would like to be assigned a specific area can call the St. John Sheriff’s Office Public Relations Department. Call 652-9513 and ask for Greg Maurin, and you will be provided bags and supplies.