“Crockett Cleanup” Sees City and Business Work to Eliminate Eyesore Properties
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – Crockett resident Jonathan Barnes announced recently the formation of a group called “Cleanup Crockett,” a collaboration between the city and local company Demo Dudes, to clean up properties which have been abandoned or have an excess of tall grass and trash. The group looks to form a list of the worst eyesores in the city and, with the help of volunteers and city support, get those properties looking spic and span, adding value and beauty to the city.
Barnes was raised in Crockett, but left to serve in the the Marines for five years before coming home only to find, “civilian life a little too hard.” Barnes offered his services to his country again, this time in the Army, for another five years, before finally adapting to life back in the real world.
Barnes married in 2021 and came to live in Crockett, although he wasn’t sure he would enjoy coming back home.
“It wasn’t my first choice to come back, but now that I’m here, I love it,” Barnes said. “I’ve seen what Crockett is capable of, and even though it’s growing, and just a good place to live.”
Barnes, like many of us, began to notice properties which had seen better times, some empty with tall grass and used as makeshift dumping grounds, and thought he could use his company and his passion for his hometown to make the city look a little brighter.
“There’s a whole lot of abandoned properties just overgrown and it’s an eyesore to the community,” Barnes said. “The city is just overworked and they don’t have enough people. I figured I’d just take it upon myself to give back to the community and try to bring some life back into it. The idea is to clean up these properties – whether or not people want to live there or they want to sell them eventually. When they’re overgrown like this, you get mice, snakes, and that affects the neighborhood, that affects the neighbors.”
Barnes has put out a call for volunteers for a community cleanup day Saturday, Sept. 14, to start the work of getting some of these properties back up to shape. There is work to do before that day, though. Barnes is asking neighbors to help report properties in bad need of makeovers. He is asking residents to submit overgrown properties to his email, [email protected] by Wednesday, Aug. 28. Then, on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2, Barnes will hold a vote to pick which properties will be dealt with, so residents have a say in which properties need the most help.
“I started a demo junk removal business and I thought that’d be a good way to give back to the community – to use my business as an avenue to do that,” Barnes said.
There have been offers of both willing hands, equipment and even money – all of which are more than welcome. City officials have pitched in by recommending properties for the list and even loaning equipment to the project, while their personnel work on other projects. Some properties might even need to eventually be demolished altogether, leaving at least a clean empty lot, instead of a property lowering the value of the home around it. ‘
“In a community we all need to work together. There’s so much division in this community and in order for us to get together and make this this city, what it can be, we need to come together and put our time and effort into this,” Barnes concluded. “Without each other, we’ll just stay in the same place. We have to work together to make better. It’s everybody’s responsibility to take care of where they live. Even if the city is trying their best, it’s not all on the city, it has to be everybody working hand in hand to get this done.”
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
