Area beautification group to present city banner project
By Nathan Straus News Reporter

Keep Chandler Beautiful, a volunteer organization devoted to making the Chandler area a more visually appealing sight, will soon showcase its latest project at the February 12 Chandler City Council meeting. The group will present its design for banners to be put up along Highway 31.

Rick Ford, current president of Keep Chandler Beautiful, said the project's goal will be to put up both seasonal and year-round welcome banners along the highway's Chandler portion by attaching them to the light poles. The project, which will cost several thousand dollars, received a large portion of its funding from the Holiday in the Park event in the winter of 2007.

"The banners will be two and a half by seven feet large," Ford said.

The banner has the words "Welcome to Chandler" on it over a blue background with a starburst around an image of Texas in the middle. Contained within the Texas image are the words "The city with a heart", "Chandler" and "Texas". The "C" in the second mention of the city connects to a red line to form a heart, and a second heart is just above the word "Texas".

The banner project is just one of the large undertakings the group performs every year, Ford also said.

The organization, affiliated with Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful, has performed projects such as the construction of McCain Park just off of Highway 31, and the group operates the recycling center behind God's Open Hands.

A press release by KCB stated the recycling center collects recyclable material every year, amounting to tons of paper and other materials.

"Each year members put on presentations at the local schools that teach the importance of helping to keep our environment clean, and each spring we assist with the Great Texas Cleanup," the release read.

Keep Chandler Beautiful is open to the public in the form of monthly meetings. These meetings take place on the third Thursday of every month at 7 pm in the Chandler Community Center.

In addition to group decisions being made at these meetings, officers are elected yearly, Ford said.

Its most recent batch consists of President Rick Ford, Vice President Bobby Proctor, Secretary Sue Breck and Treasurer Mary Adair.

The KCB group is tightknit, and there is usually only one nomination for group positions every year. The nomination is made by organization's executive board and voted on by the members.

The group often works closely with the city of Chandler on projects.

"We appreciate Mr. Moffeit and the City Council for their support and services with all of our projects," Ford said.