Team up to Clean Up is a means to address blight via organized neighborhood sweeps.
City staff worked with local Citizen District Council members and the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy to develop the program and identify neighborhoods of focus for 2019. This is a pilot program and with a successful outcome may be offered in future years.
Letters were mailed to the property owners, landlords, and tenants in two neighborhoods explaining the program and desired results.
A portion of the letter reads as follows:
"The City of Bay City is committed to keeping all of our neighborhoods clean and properly maintained. It has been a priority of the City Commission to make the City of Bay City a cleaner and safer city. Code Enforcement staff in conjunction with Community Policing will be sweeping neighborhoods in September, 2019 for any nuisance violations. Before this sweep takes place and with that goal in mind, the “Brighten Bay City’s Neighborhoods – Team Up to Clean Up” committee was created. It is this committee’s goal to identify city neighborhoods that could benefit from organized clean-up. In conjunction with the organized clean-up, the goal is to provide education regarding basic property maintenance such as debris in the yard, disabled and/or inoperable vehicles parked on the grass and overgrown yards and also provide free resources."
Recently the Team Up to Clean Up committee selected your neighborhood for the 2019 program. Our goal is to reach out to property owners such as yourself to provide incentives to participate in the program. Some of these incentives include:
- Volunteers would help remove debris from the yard to be placed at the curb for a special pick-up at no charge to the property owner.
- Education will be provided regarding alternatives to storing disabled and/or inoperable vehicles on the property.
- Assistance to clean-up yards such as raking, trim bushes and trees to provide a safe environment for the occupant."
Staff is optimistic that the efforts of volunteers and the selected neighborhoods will bring about positive results for all of Bay City. Once the pilot has been completed the results of the program will be evaluated and shared.