Goose Creek heights spruced up

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By Erin Tiesman | Thursday, November 9, 2006 1:36 AM CST | () comments

Photos by Erin Tiesman/QUAD-CITY TIMES Davenport police Capt. Kevin Murphy, right, and volunteer Walter Skovronski help cut out old bushes in front of one of the homes in Goose Creek Heights in northwest Davenport. The landscaping removal was done as part of an effort to clean up the appearance of the neighborhood.

Davenport Alderman Ian Frink, at-large, volunteered his time to help the Goose Creek Heights Neighborhood Association cleanup last weekend. The cleanup was targeted to help make the neighborhood more attractive to people looking to buy or rent in the area.

Actions of area neighbors are making Goose Creek Heights in northwest Davenport a friendlier environment.

With the help of city volunteers and property owners, the neighborhood was cleaned up and spruced up last weekend to bring attention to its family-friendly environment.

“When people drive through here, we want them to see how well the property is being maintained,” said Mary Schenck, volunteer and cleanup coordinator.

The Goose Creek Heights Neighborhood Association focuses on keeping the neighborhood clean through trash pickups. On Saturday, the focus was on the outside of homes, especially overgrown shrubs and trees.

“It’s an ongoing process for the property owners to clean up the inside of these homes, but this is the first time we have focused on the outside landscape,” Schenck said.

Volunteers lined 59th Street to pick up trash, and cool temperatures and cloudy, drizzly skies did not affect the heart of the event.

“This is a classic example of a neighborhood pulling together,” Davenport Alderman Ian Frink, at-large, said as he pitched in as a volunteer.

As with past issues in the neighborhood, volunteers said it is helpful to clean up what they can now to make Goose Creek Heights a more attractive place to live and to bring in more families.

“This neighborhood has faced many challenges. In recent years, they got community policing through the neighborhood to help weed out the bad tenants, and now they are reinventing and remarketing this area,” Frink said.

With about 30 people volunteering on the cleanup, the changes were already noticeable to coordinators of the event.

“I took some ‘before’ pictures of these lawns, and already with the landscape cleanup, the yards are bigger and more attractive,” Schenck said.

Trees and bushes were trimmed of their dead branches, which helped open up space for new planting and improved visibility in the neighborhood. Garbage trucks cleared away the branches.

Other events have helped bring a positive attitude to the neighborhood. In October, the neighborhood association sponsored a children’s event called Fun at the Park in Goose Creek Park. About 30 neighborhood children decorated pumpkins and trick-or-treat bags, and played games.

“We have a whole mix of people that are helping with the event,” Schenck said. “Property and land owners, people living here or renting here and even people that used to live in the neighborhood are here to help, and that’s a really great feeling.”

Although this cleanup was the first of its kind, Schenck and fellow volunteers would like to see it become a tradition.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.