Community cleanup project needs volunteers

Borrowing a phrase from Hemingway and supplies from local businesses, Costa Mesa city officials are encouraging the public to pitch in for a new local effort to beautify a neighborhood in Mesa del Mar.

The “Clean Well Lighted Place Neighborhood Clean Up” — the name taken from a Hemingway story title — will be held Aug. 5 in the neighborhood around Mission and El Camino drives. Volunteers will help collect recyclables and large trash items such as furniture, paint over graffiti and create fenced-in play areas for neighborhood kids, said Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Katrina Foley.

Foley, City Manager Allan Roeder and City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow arranged the clean-up after the City Council in May voted not to move the annual “Neighbors for Neighbors” clean-up to the area.

Donations of funds and supplies for painting and building fences are needed. Checks can be made out to the Costa Mesa Community Foundation, P.O. Box 10268, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, with the name of the clean-up in the memo line. For more information, call Foley at (714) 754-5177.

— Alicia Robinson