Mayor thanks MetLife beach cleanup team

By Kelcy Dolan
Posted 11/24/15

On October 17 nearly 24 volunteers, made up of MetLife employees and their family, spent four hours at Oakland Beach cleaning up the beach, collecting more than 30 bags of trash.

More than a …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Mayor thanks MetLife beach cleanup team

Posted

On October 17 nearly 24 volunteers, made up of MetLife employees and their family, spent four hours at Oakland Beach cleaning up the beach, collecting more than 30 bags of trash.

More than a month later, those volunteers gathered again at City Hall for a personal thank you from Mayor Scott Avedisian.

Across the country MetLife has “Green Teams,” an employee group, interested in sustainability, that meet regularly for projects that can have a positive environmental impact.

Jim Farugia, manager relations, said this year the local Green Team wanted to do something “bigger” to give back to the community, agreeing to clean up Oakland Beach.

“The local beaches were our first thought,” Farugia said. “We could have done something down in Narragansett, but our offices are based here and Warwick and we wanted to have a more immediate impact on this community.”

Avedisian thanked the volunteers on Friday and said that a program has been developed to hire youth in the summers to clean up both Oakland Beach as well as the beach at City Park.

He explained that because Warwick doesn’t charge and both beaches are easily accessible by public transportation, they can become problem areas because those not “committed” to these neighborhoods.

“We appreciate all the help at Oakland Beach,” Avedisian said. “It’s a testament to your work and dedication to the city.”

Avedisian said everyone deserved to go to the beach for free and resists charging for the beaches. He did explain, though, that the city is looking to possibly move the Oakland Beach parking lot behind the baseball fields and re-vegetating the area right along the beach to provide better protection from runoff.

With Iggy’s new Boardwalk, as well as plans for the carousel to finally be implemented in the nest few years, Avedisian hopes to create a “boardwalk” feel to Oakland Beach.

Comments

1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • CameronClueless

    Avedisian is a grandstanding LIAR and hires people to work for the city illegally. volunteers have been cleaning up the trashed city of warwick all summer long

    Tuesday, November 24, 2015 Report this