ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
CLEAN VALLEY DAY drew its usual slew of volunteers, but also included a more captive work force - people guilty of minor crimes such as vandalism.
Whether it was painting over graffiti in an inner-city neighborhood or plucking trash out of the Roanoke River from canoes, dozens of residents rolled up their sleeves Saturday and took part in the Roanoke Valley's annual day of spring cleaning.
In the largest event of Clean Valley Day, more than 60 people gathered in the area of 11th Street and Melrose Avenue Northwest to pick up trash and litter along streets, in alleys and on abandoned lots.
Most were volunteers, but some were there by court order - including three juveniles and an adult who were convicted last year of painting graffiti on several 11th Street buildings.
A judge ordered them to paint over the graffiti as part of their sentences, and on Saturday the vandals were joined by a dozen or so other traffic and criminal offenders who painted several buildings as part of their court-ordered community service.
Also helping with the cleanup were 16 members of the Roanoke Police Department's COPE team, which became the target of the obscene and threatening graffiti when it began to patrol the area about a year ago.
"You can tell by the graffiti that they know we're in the area," said Lt. Doug Allen, referring to scrawled threats against the department's Community Oriented Policing Effort. The graffiti had been painted over last summer, only to reappear within a week.
"Hopefully, this will last longer than a week," Allen said. COPE members assisted with the cleanup as part of an ongoing effort to build better ties between the community and police.
"This is just to show them that if we take pride in their neighborhood, then the neighbors will take pride in it too," Allen said.
The Melrose Avenue cleanup was organized by community organizations, businesses and churches, and a newly formed City Action Team helped coordinate city trucks that were in the area to haul away the trash.
Elsewhere in the Roanoke Valley, other groups were pitching in on Clean Valley Day.
The Roanoke chapter of the Float Fisherman of Virginia used their canoes to clean up a three-mile stretch of the Roanoke River in Salem. Other members of the group combed the river banks on foot to collect an assortment of bottles, tires, cans, even a cast-iron bathtub that had either been dumped in the river or was washed downstream by floodwaters.
"It's just unbelievable the amount of trash that is out there," said Mike Byrd, president of the group.
In Old Southwest, people were doing more than just getting rid of trash. As part of Block Pride Day, residents were signing up to care for 115 dogwood and red maple trees that will be planted by the city next month in a six-block area of Day and Marshall Avenues.
In return for pledging to water and care for a sapling in front of their homes, residents were given their choice of a garden hose or watering can. Organizers estimated that at least six tons of trash was hauled away from the area.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. 1. Gardner Hoover, a senior at Patrickby CNBHenry High School, crosses the Roanoke River in a canoe filled with
refuse he gathered as part of Clean Valley Day. Hoover was working
Saturday in West Salem. Several canoeists helped bring the garbage
bags to shore, where they were picked up by vehicles and taken to be
properly disposed of. color. 2. Richard Lahr (left) and Michael
Varlow paint over graffiti on the side of a building on 11th Street
in Roanoke. The graffiti removal project was just one facet of Clean
Valley Day.