Cleanup Scheduled for Old Lemon Grove

They have transformed vacant, trash-choked lots into flower gardens, nudged city officials into rewriting nuisance abatement laws and lured millions of federal dollars to revamp their neighborhood.

Now members of the Westside Community Council have a new target: an abandoned Ventura lemon grove at the base of a hill, a place better known for its homeless camps and empty liquor bottles than fruit and fragrant blossoms.

Saturday, volunteers are being sought to help the citizen group prune back the overgrown orchard, clear away junk and begin converting the place into a bikeway, dog walk and jogging path.

Volunteers are asked to meet at the corner of Kellogg and Cedar streets at 9 a.m. The cleanup will continue until noon.

Fifteen youngsters from the Boys & Girls Club will help the volunteers, who should bring gloves, hats, eye protection, cleanup tools and wheelbarrows.

The group plans to hold one cleanup day at the orchard each month until it reclaims the grove down to Comstock Street near De Anza Middle School.

For more information, call Cathy or Robert Stanley at 641-1503.