Katrina E. Williams
Northeast News

City-issued blue bags will be available for upcoming Northeast clean-up events, after all.

Mattie Rhodes Center (148 N. Topping) has collected the waste bags on behalf of the Northeast neighborhood associations, which can each obtain up to 200 blue bags to distribute or use in upcoming cleanups.

One such event is the upcoming Northeast Spring Cleanup, which will take place on Saturday, April 28, from 8 a.m. until noon. Trash compactors will be available at the south side of Budd Park and at The Concourse. A trailer will also be provided at The Concourse near Gladstone Blvd. for tires collection.

“Historically, we have always received bags from the city,” said Mary Cyr, Director of Northeast Alliance Together (NEAT), an organization housed at Mattie Rhodes Center. “We have two clean ups each year, one in April and one in October. The city is usually good about providing resources like the bags, the trailer for the tires and the compactors.”

This year the neighborhood and housing services initially gave some pushback about providing the bags, citing past abuse of the provision as the rationale. After some negotiations and public pushback, the bags were delivered to the Mattie Rhodes Center last week.

“Two of our neighborhood presidents really took the initiative, picked it up and ran with it,” Cyr added.

NEAT is also partnering with a private business owner who is organizing volunteers to help residents of the Northeast get their bulk items hauled away.

“Now is the ideal time for neighborhood leaders to be organizing volunteers who have trucks and trailers for the pick up of bulk items,” Cyr said.