City council extends spring clean-up initiative

As the snow melts in Regina, it is revealing litter and garbage around the city and the issue was addressed at Wednesday afternoon’s city council meeting.

An amendment was approved to extend spring clean-up initiatives in neighbourhoods like North Central and Heritage until next fall.

Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Stevens said it’s a serious problem in certain areas of the city.

"We are kind of chasing around alleys and roadways that we know are issues,” Stevens said. “This is extending a specialized service that's meant to clean up those areas.”

The city is also prepared to help other areas of Regina that need the service.

Executive director of citizen services Kim Onrait, said the city will also be accommodating service requests from other areas that need clean up.

"We are just going to have a focus team that will deal with service requests that come in from residents across the city.”

Mayor Sandra Masters said the weather played a major part in the amount of garbage being seen around the city.

"When the snow melts there is debris all over the city in some respects. So the cleanup is being undertaken by city staff and there are alleyways,” said Masters. “Currently there is a program in place for spring cleanup which touches about 40 alleys, which just have specific ongoing issues.”

Stevens added it’s important to understand what the clean-up means to communities participating in the initiative.

"I think it's also important to recognize how much attention and care those residents put into those communities and some of them are getting frustrated when they're tired of constantly having to pick up,” said Stevens. “They know this isn't the only solution, but it means a lot to them.”

With large events looming this summer and into the fall, Masters said it’s important to clean up the city.

"We want to be seen as a caring community and that we care about how we look, we care about how we present ourselves and we care about our residents,” Masters said.

The extension of the spring clean-up is a pilot project and the results will be reported back to the city in the fall before it decides if the program should be extended to other communities.