Ongoing Efforts to Clean Up Williston | Video

Evan Kruegel | 10/9/2012

The Band Day Clean-Up day in May was a huge success, as thousands of people turned out to beautify the streets of Williston. The large turnout was a great sight for Mayor Ward Koeser, who felt something had to be done to clean up the town.

"There were well over 1,000 people cleaning out there that weekend, so they did a wonderful job. But like anything it doesn`t stay that way so about a month ago we said you know it would be great if we could do another one this fall."

And that`s exactly what they did this past weekend. But only 400 people turned out to volunteer, so certain areas of the town didn`t get touched. That has prompted clean up officials to add another clean-up day, Saturday October 20.

"We really wanted to focus on the downtown area and we didn`t get it cleaned up that well, but we`re going to focus their on October 20th," said organizer Dan Manjack.

Community members have been great at the cleanup days, but the turnout from oil companies has been outstanding.

"I tell you what, my hat goes off to the oil companies, much of this work is being done by the oil companies and I think it shows that they care. They`re here from wherever maybe just working, but they`re going to take pride in our community as well, so we appreciate their efforts,” said Koeser.

Officials have also come up with some other ideas that could be used year-round, instead of just on certain Saturdays throughout the year.

"One thing we talked about is moving towards an adopt the street program, and I think we really want to work on implementing that because a lot of the older local residents really want to do something they can do all the time", said Manjack.

Koeser Agrees.

"It`s a new concept, we`ve done that along the highway but we`ve never done it in town. We`re not sure exactly how it would work but it`s a neat thing to look at."

As the city gears up for its final clean up day of the year, officials are hoping for a turnout similar to what they saw in the spring.

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