Cleanin’ up uptown

KELLOGG — The Kellogg Elks are looking to spruce things up a little bit in uptown Kellogg by hosting their first community cleanup event next week.

Organizer Carol Young explains that members of the Kellogg Elks decided cleaning up the area would be a worthwhile endeavor.

“With COVID-19, our usual community events have been canceled,” she explained. “We were talking about trying something new that would benefit our community during the shut down.”

The locations they’ve set their sights on to clean next Tuesday include East Idaho Street, running from behind the Elks Lodge east to Shoshone Funeral Home/Uptown City Park.

This area was chosen due to its proximity to the Elks building in uptown and a need.

“The property owners along East Idaho Street have been making major improvements to their homes and apartment buildings,” Young said. “The area looks so much better now with owners investing in their properties. There is a definite new rebirth along the street and pride in ownership is showing.”

Since the chosen areas are used by a wide range of people including residents, business employees and event attendees, it only made sense to the Elks to make sure things looked a bit nicer — especially this time of the year.

Young and the Kellogg Elks are hoping to have volunteers assist them in their efforts, which will involve a good amount of debris pickup and raking/bagging of yard waste left behind by the city of Kellogg crews that have been cutting grass and weeds in the area.

Participates are encouraged to bring rakes (lawn or bow rakes), shovels, gloves and water.

“We are hoping for a great turn out,” Young said. “Everyone is invited — individuals, groups, business owners/employees. It is a large area — social distancing will not be an issue. Masks are not required, but people who are more comfortable wearing masks are encouraged.”

The cleanup will go from 7 to 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28 and begin behind the Kellogg Elks building at 202 1/2 McKinley Ave., Kellogg.

For more information, contact Young by calling 208-682-4595 or email her carolyoung@frontier.com.