35 groups expected at Clean Sweep on Saturday

About three dozen groups will participate in this year’s Kingston Clean Sweep.

Organizer Anna Brett said Wednesday that 35 local groups – “the most ever” — have signed up to clean city streets between 9 a.m. and noon Saturday.

This year’s Kingston Clean Sweep, the ninth, is dedicated to the late Patricia O’Reilly Murphy, a longtime member of the group Friends of Historic Kingston and founder of the event.

The event is sponsored by the city and the Friends group.

Volunteers will pick up litter along the “Kingston Corridor” from the railroad crossing on Washington Avenue through the Uptown business district, and down Broadway to the Rondout

Creek waterfront, as well as on some side streets.

Each group or individual will be assigned a specific section an will be supplied with trash bags and plastic gloves donated by local businesses. Volunteers are asked to bring their own rakes and brooms.

Filled bags are to be placed at the curb for pickup by the city’s Department of Public Works immediately after the

event.

Last year, about 275 volunteers, ranging in age from student to senior citizen, picked up almost 5,000 pounds of trash and 13.5 cubic yards of litter, yard waste and metal materials.

Organizations participating in this year’s Clean Sweep are: Kingston Lions Club, Kingston Uptown Business Association, Young Ulster Professionals, Ulster Savings Bank, Kingston Rotary Club, Friends of the Senate House, Opera House, Volunteer Firemen’s Museum,

Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, Kingston Catholic Middle School, Ulster Garden Club, Junior League of Kingston, Boy Scouts Troop 103, Ulster County Board of Realtors and Friends of Kingston Library.

Also, Ward 4 and Ward 9 Community Groups, Midtown Rising, Midtown Arts District; YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County, Kingston Boys and Girls Club, Kingston Kiwanis Club, Sanzi Associates, Kingston Catholic School, Reher Center for

Immigrant Culture and History, Kingston Waterfront Business Association, Hudson River Maritime Museum, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish Cultural Center of the Hudson Valley, Rondout Rowing Club, Children’s Home of Kingston, Kingston Land Trust/ Greenline and Jeff Low Lowe Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning.

Others wishing to volunteer should call Friends of Historic Kingston at (845) 339-0720 or email abrett1@verizon.net.

FILE Laura Nordstrom, left, Aidan White, center, and Joan Keating work outside the YMCA on Broadway in Kingston, N.Y., during the 2017 Kingston Clean Sweep.