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Jun 12, 2023

Tenth annual Clean

Giavanni Ford, a freshman at Foxboro High School, picks up trash on South Street at last year’s Clean-Up Foxboro Day. FOXBORO — A decade after first stalking local streets in pursuit of unsightly

Giavanni Ford, a freshman at Foxboro High School, picks up trash on South Street at last year’s Clean-Up Foxboro Day.

FOXBORO — A decade after first stalking local streets in pursuit of unsightly roadway litter, organizers of the annual Clean-Up Foxboro Day event have redoubled efforts to spruce up the landscape when gathering for this year’s canvass on Saturday, Sept. 9.

“This is going to be the 10th annual cleanup and we hope it will be the biggest ever,” said Foxboro High School senior Nathan Urman, who appeared before the town select board last week with fellow student Michael Marcucella.

Urman and Marcucella — along with event co-founder A.J. Dooley, Joseph Gerraughty and Jennifer Riggs — were appointed to the cleanup day steering committee for a term ending May 31, 2024.

“I just love seeing young people getting involved and running with something like this,” board member Leah Gibson observed.

The brainchild of Dooley and retired Foxboro Reporter editor Jack Authelet, the town-wide cleanup event typically attracts between 200-400 volunteers on a Saturday morning to help collect accumulated litter, discarded trash and assorted debris on streets and other public spaces throughout the town.

Traditionally scheduled in April or May as a “spring cleaning” for local roadways, the event had been rescheduled to September in 2021 in deference to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings. The 2020 cleanup event was skipped altogether for the same reason.

This year’s cleanup day, scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon, will be followed by a pizza party from noon to 1 p.m. Would-be volunteers are asked to report that morning to the Schneider Electric parking lot at the corner of Bird Street and Railroad Avenue, just over the railroad tracks.

To assist in planning, volunteers are encouraged to sign up in advance by visiting the cleanup day website at www.cleanupfoxboro.org, which is now being updated with current information. However, Dooley said that walk-ons are always welcome and can simply sign up on Saturday morning for route assignments.

Upon arriving, they will be equipped with safety T-shirts, disposable gloves and trash bags waiting to be filled. Volunteers also will be provided a number to call if they observe hazardous materials, rather than risk handling it themselves.

Organizers stress that volunteers needn’t make a four-hour commitment in order to participate, adding that even with business and at-times conflicting weekend schedules, people can still help out.

In a subsequent series of votes during their Sept. 16 meeting, select board members acted to confirm several pending committee appointments.

These included Lorraine Brue to an open seat on the Zoning Board of Appeals, Taunya Orlando to an open seat on the Conservation Commission, and David DelPizzo, Margaret Chaisson and David Foscaldo to the Foxboro Commission on Disability.

Brue had been serving as an alternate member of the zoning board prior to being named to fill the permanent opening created by the June 19 death of longtime member David Brown, whose term expires May 31, 2026.

Orlando’s term expires on May 31, 2025.

Lastly, board members unanimously appointed a slate of 72 election workers for a term beginning Sept. 1 and ending Aug. 31, 2024.