To the Editor:
I am asking all citizens, as a community-engaged activist and as a volunteer aid to the office of Mayor Chuck Espy, to take part in keeping our neighborhoods and community clean and free from blight and stopped-up drains.
Please, citizens of Clarksdale, when you come to a four-way stop sign or if you are driving down the streets or highway, I am asking you not to throw your fast-food trash onto our city streets.
Clarksdale is growing with leaps and bounds and everything we do negative is a bad reflection upon our city and mayor.
Every Friday was designated as clean-up Friday our mayor, Mr. Chuck Espy. I have personally worked with Mayor Espy to keep our streets and city clean.
For those of you that are unaware, Mr. Espy has worked with me on having a four-way Stop sign erected on Mississippi Avenue and Sixth Street for our children’s safety and the community. On Sixth Street and Leflore, I was with Mayor Espy when he personally called the public works department and had it install a missing storm drain cover.
Also, if you have taken notice, the mayor is making sure all of the major thoroughfares through Clarksdale are being cleaned, cut and sprayed. These include the intersections of Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Desoto Avenue, Highway 61 and Madison Street, and Highway 61 and Ritchie.
The city has been working overtime on Saturdays to make sure Clarksdale is clean.
Rome was not built in a year and all of Clarksdale’s problems won’t be solved by Mayor Espy in one year and not even two years. Please support our mayor and work with him.
I would also like to thank Commissioner Ken Murphey for the support he has showed me in Ward Two; whether it was financial support or having city workers to cut down overgrown grass on Mississippi Avenue behind the old McDonalds on Desoto Avenue.
Pointing fingers and complaining won’t solve Clarksdale’s problems. We, as a city and community, must become proactive and not reactive to our city problems.
Last, but not least, please do not put your pickup piles on the city streets, but on the curbs.
Milton Gardner
Clarksdale
