Efforts beginning to brighten up the City

On October 6, members of the new town improvement group Clarion Pride met at the First United Methodist Church to learn about work the group’s done so far and plans for future improvements. Their goal is to market Clarion to visitors and help bring the once-pristine town back to its former glory.

Peggy O’Neill, chair of the Clarion Pride committee, started by thanking those businesses who had planted pots of petunias along Main Street and those who had volunteered on the May 19 cleanup day. She also introduced Jessie Southard-Oppman, whom Clarion Pride had helped by painting her house, which was a little run-down when she bought it after her father’s death.

“I was honestly kind of nervous about it at first, because I hate having stuff done for me,” Southard-Oppman said. Afterward, however, she was grateful for the step. “It’s quite a transformation and it really helped me out.”

 Fresh paint is one of the ways Clarion Pride thinks Clarion can be brightened up. Ted and Sue Brigger have volunteered time and work to help paint and shingle houses. One of the group’s main goals, however, is to clear the corridors into Clarion by encouraging people to clean up junk and old rusted materials on the roads that run through town.

For the full story, see the October 15 edition of the Monitor.