CASTROVILLE, Calif. -- Small Town Shows Pride With Clean-Up Efforts. We're showing our Central Coast Pride. We're shining light on the second oldest community in Monterey County, we're talking about Castroville!
The town raised more than $15,000 to send to Japan after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, and you may smell coffee when you head their way after Green Mountain Roasting came into town and brought nearly 300 jobs with it.
Castroville is also proud to say 3/4 all the artichoke in the world is grown there. The community also puts in a lot of effort to keep the area clean so it has arranged to have several cleanup days throughout the year. "We call it 'Castroville Rising,' so we got a lot of really good things happening," said Eric Tynam.
Eric Tynam has worked as the Castroville community services district manager for the past 12 years. His main focus is keeping the town looking good. "The whole town is awesome to live here," said Tynam.
Cleanup efforts started in the 80s and go on throughout the year. Within the last few years the downtown area has been repainted, and more than $600,000 has gone to repairing sidewalks. That's not the only part of the clean-up! This town has a very efficient cleanup system where graffiti is removed in less than 24 hours after its reported.
Two weeks before the Castroville Artichoke Festival the town holds an annual all day cleanup effort with help from as many as 100 residents, local businesses and students. "The high school students, they commit to community service hours. The girl scouts come help us out," said Tynam.
For the small 7,000 population town it seems to be working. "Every year its getting better to the point where its actually hard to find anything to pick up so that's our challenge right. Keep improving the town just make it better for more opportunities as far as jobs," said Tynam.
