MORGANTOWN — Call it spring cleaning writ large.
Or maybe the metropolitan version of sweeping the front stoop.
However it’s characterized, a volunteer community effort to assist the West Virginia Division of Highways by sprucing up the major arteries into the greater Morgantown area kicked off this past weekend on Monongahela Boulevard.
Morgantown City Councilor Louise “Weez” Michael spent weeks marshaling the administrative, financial and material support needed.
Then Saturday rolled around and the clouds rolled in.
The volunteers showed up anyway.
“Honestly, I didn’t know how it was going to go. I was just so stunned at how many people were really wanting to get involved in this,” Michael said, estimating 60 to 70 volunteers participated over two days despite conditions that ranged from cloudy to downpour.
The end result was some 200 bags of trash collected and hundreds of pounds of accumulated dirt and debris cleared along the shoulders and in the median of roughly 1.3 miles of Mon Boulevard – between Chaplin Hill Road and the Coliseum.
The cleanup received support from the West Virginia Division of Highways, Monongalia County, Morgantown, Star City and the WVU Student Government Association, among others. That support ranged from the necessary permits from the DOH to materials, vehicles, traffic control and manual labor.
Michael gave a special shoutout to Labor International Union of North America locals 379 (Morgantown) and 616 (Cumberland, Md.) which showed up with well over a dozen people to, literally, take on the heavy lifting.
“I was stunned. I was so happy. You look at the before and after, and the work we did was amazing. There are 10 drains all the way up the boulevard. Not one of them was accessible,” Michael said. “We cleared so much trash and debris.”
But Mon Boulevard was just the beginning.
Michael said a group of volunteers will clean litter in the area around Exit 155 and finish up some work near the Coliseum this weekend while another group starts tackling WV 705 from Sheetz/Walgreens to the Suncrest Towne Centre.
“I’m excited about this project. My goal is to literally go everywhere – from 68, coming off the airport exit, Sabraton, University Avenue, the Westover, Granville and Star City exits,” she said.
As the mayor of a town situated along one of those major entryways, Star City Mayor Sharon Doyle said the difference made on Mon Boulevard is much appreciated.
“I was on the Saturday crew and we picked up 110 bags of trash. It’s sad the lack of respect from individuals who think it’s acceptable to throw trash out along our roadways. We loaded everything from tires, buckets, beer cans, liquor bottles, food containers and everything else you could imagine,” Doyle said, commending Michael and all the volunteers.
“This is Weez’s vision. She’s wanting to get these entryways presentable, and I’ll say that the Division of Highways is fortunate that people care enough to give their own time to do the work that’s the responsibility of the state.”
Michael recognized the support offered by DOH District 4 leadership, noting “These guys are doing the best they can.”
“To me, litter pickups, cleaning sidewalks, debris, clearing stuff from drains, those are things we can do to chip in while they focus on the bigger projects that need attention, like our roads,” she said.
Michael noted that the greater Morgantown area is one of the few growth spots in West Virginia and needs to make a good impression to help keep that momentum going.
“If we can make it look nicer, why wouldn’t we do that?” she said.
For more information or to participate in future cleanup projects, contact Michael at ward3@morgantownwv.gov.
