Mid Hudson Times Mar. 16 2016 | Page 4

4 Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Newburgh Community Cleanup planned for April 23 Event expanded to include west end of the city By SHANTAL RILEY [email protected] The Newburgh Community Cleanup takes place on April 23. In its sixth year, the cleanup will expand to include Wards 3 and 4. “I invite all renters, neighbors, owners, landlords, everybody to get out there with your bags and your pickers and pick up the litter in your neighborhood,” said Newburgh Mayor Judy Kennedy. “We will be sparkling clean on Earth Day.” Safe Harbors began the cleanup event in honor of Earth Day in 2010. The cleanup has so far focused on Ward 1 and Ward 2 in the east end of the city. Ward 4 Councilwoman Cindy Holmes kick-started plans to piggyback on the event and extend the cleanup effort into the city’s west end. “We didn’t want to impede what is going on downtown, so I reached out to get my own support,” said Holmes, adding she will work on getting assistance from military units stationed at Stewart Air National Guard Base. As in the east end, Holmes pointed out, there are plenty of abandoned buildings and properties in need of attention in other parts of the city. “It needs to be cleaned too,” she said. “We have abandoned houses in wards 3 and 4. A lot of them are habitable. But, we don’t get the attention we need to maintain the houses