Published: August 23, 2008 09:25 pm         

Cleaning up the city

• Stillwater’s municipal employees working on improving appearance around town

Mayor Roger McMillian issued a proclamation declaring August as “Clean Up Stillwater Month,” and the city of Stillwater has initiated numerous projects to do just that.

“It’s something we always need to do,” McMillian said. “We need to cleanup and work on the appearance of Stillwater.”

The proclamation was issued at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting, and the city has undertaken many projects, including:

• Fertilizing beds at city hall and the Multi Arts Center;

• Installing new planting beds in the traffic island at Sixth and Lowry;

• Cleaning, trimming and mulching the Japanese garden at the Community Center;

• Cleaning the Multi Arts Children’s Garden;

• Landscaping the Payne County Veterans Memorial;

• Trimming the trees and shrubs at city hall, the Senior Center, Multi Arts Center, David Payne Memorial and Boomer Lake;

• Adding cypress mulch to the aforementioned facilities, and;

• Contracting small mowing areas and creating designated natural areas in the city park system, according to Sherry Fletcher, city director of marketing and public relations.

But the city is doing much more than “yard work”; public works projects have been initiated in other areas, some without any landscaping. Street sweeping trucks have been out around town, sweeping major streets; all streets are being restriped to make lines brighter; and the city has targeted neglected properties around the city to clean them up and remove litter, said Stillwater City Manager Dan Galloway.

For the Parks, Events & Recreation Department, it’s nothing new.

“This is something we’ve been doing for quite a while,” said John McClenny, PER director.

The department has changed how it does certain things, including how they mow the parks. The department changed its mowing schedules, lowering the number of mowing days from 12 to seven. One way the department did this was by creating “designated natural areas” in each of the parks. This lowers the amount of mowing, giving the department more time to focus on higher-visibility areas and reduces emissions. It also allows nature to reclaim wild areas in the city, areas where the department eventually plans to add wild flowers, McClenny said.

“Cleanup Stillwater Month” won’t end in August, McClenny said, and he sees it as something the city can continue to do.

“We’re going to look for ways to upgrade the community,” he said.

McMillian also plans to take it a step further and make it an annual project.

“We have so many people coming to Stillwater, so many people who have never been here before, it’s critical we need to make it as nice as we can.”

     

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