NewsChannel5 completes week-long Building Better Neighborhoods clean-up effort

CLEVELAND - Four dozen WEWS staff members, from every department, spent the entire week at multiple clean-up sites, as part of NewsChannel5's Building Better Neighborhoods initiative.

Under the supervision of Cleveland's Nehemiah Mission, NewsChannel5 staff members helped to demolish an abandoned garage, tear down old fencing, paint two homes and clean-up an abandoned alley.

Teams from WEWS put on hardhats to take down the dilapidated garage on West 110th Street on Monday, hauling out the old wood and debris a day later.

Homes on West 81st Street in Cleveland, and on Saybrook Avenue in Garfield Heights were power washed, scraped and painted on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Building Better Neighborhoods team gave its final effort on Friday, removing  high weeds, trash and debris from an abandoned alley at West 55th Street and Storer Avenue. According to neighbors like Chasidy Volkenant, it's an alley that hasn't been open to traffic in years. Volkenant applauded the effort made by the Nehemiah Mission and NewsChannel5.

"Oh, I think it's a wonderful idea," said Volkenant. "It's great for homeowners. We have some hope that somebody cares."

Nehemiah Mission Executive Director Jim Szakacs helps companies from all over the world put their employees to work in volunteer settings. It was Szakacs who was key in setting up NewsChannel5's week-long Building Better Neighborhoods volunteer effort.

"This was so incredibly responsive of NewsChannel5 to allow their employees to not only volunteer, but to allow them to come out during the work day, and not have to tap into their vacation hours to do it," said Szakacs.

WEWS Vice President and General Manger Sam Rosenwasser pledged this would not be NewsChannel5's only station wide volunteer effort. 

"We've seen examples of neighborhoods getting together and say let's clean-up our area," said Rosenwassser. "I think companies like ours can take on projects to benefit the neighborhoods and make them better places to live."

NewsChannel5 invites residents to take action by volunteering with organizations like the Nehemiah Mission , and report vacant/condemned homes through its NewsChannel5 Building Better Neighborhoods initiative.

Residents are encouraged to send in pictures and information on distressed properties to our Troubleshooter Facebook or Twitter accounts @ joeonyourside . Report a home using your smartphone and our free NewsChannel5 app.

If you're dealing with a vacant home in your neighborhood, use the Cleveland Housing Court Vacant Home Toolkit to guide you through the process of moving a vacant home to progress step by step.

NewsChannel5 will bring you a series of reports and updates on the progress made through the Building Better Neighborhoods initiative throughout 2012.