Promotion Release
Thank You to Neighborhood Cleanup 10/22/2010
October 22, 2010, OLEAN, NY -- I want to take this opportunity to thank the more than 200 volunteers, groups and organizations who exercised enormous community spirit and civic pride in beautifying the city of Olean this summer.
Many organizations and residents signed on as volunteers with my Neighborhood Preservation Committee by adopted whole neighborhoods and others went out individually, in pairs and in larger groups to pick up trash, pull weeds and paint. Others helped our law enforcement team organize Neighborhood Watch groups.
As Mayor I appreciate the groups’ efforts and support in truly making the first year of our Neighborhood Preservation Committee’s cleanup task very successful! You can’t buy that kind of help and the city can be assured that we do have creative and industrious residents who are committed to taking action and producing positive benefits for the entire community.
Special recognition should be extended to our Committee members. Joyce Melfi and Paula Snyder worked with the Police and Fire Department Staff on safety issues. Lila Ervay and Alderman Casey Jones headed up the Litter Control teams. Here are the names of the groups who I’d like to thank for “pitching in” together with their leaders. The names are individuals are too numerous to mention here but they were the folks who you may have noticed searching for trash wearing gloves and carrying garbage bags on some of the hottest days of the 2010 summer. All these people made our community a better place. Thanks to all of you!
- Archbishop Walsh Academy – Nick Shaw; Assemblyman Joseph Giglio & Staff – Wendy Brand/Mike Brisky; BonaResponds and Liberty Partnerships__ Jim and Jen Mahar;
- Community Bank, NA – Linda Harrington; Council on Recovery – Eden Bennett;
- First Presbyterian Church – Pastor Eileen Borduin Vandezwan;
- Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce – Meme Yanetsko;
- Jamestown Community College – Lisa Yohon;
- Kiwanis Club – Lance Chaffee;
- Mt. Zion Christian Assembly – Pastor Stephen Patrick;
- NeighborWorks – Kim Whitney;
- Olean Business Institute – Carl English;
- Olean General Hospital – Tim Finan and Karen Fohl;
- Olean High School Interact Club & Friends – Colleen Taggerty;
- Rehabilitation Center – Jim Bellanca and Russ Hahn
- St. John’s Church – Jay Sorokes;
- St. Mary of the Angels Church – Fr. Greg Dobson;
- Senator Cathy Young & Staff – George Filgrove;
- Social Services Work Crew - Jim Vreeland/Rachel Watz;
- YMCA – Jim Padlo.
We will renew our Neighborhood Cleanup Committee work beginning next May and the organizing effort will include distribution of safety vests for volunteers. Please watch for announcements and calls for volunteers to participate in 2011.
Sincerely,
Mayor Linda L. Witte