HOLYOKE — Holyoke Mayor Joshua A. Garcia said the city is making “incremental progress” in changing the culture around cleanliness in the city thanks to recent initiatives such as its anti-blight “flex squad.”
“The Flex Squad has been doing regular sweeps block-by-block on the weekends and citing property owners whose properties violate city ordinances. … This initiative has been helpful with educating the public and changing the culture of how we maintain properties,” Garcia wrote in his Feb. 23 letter to Holyoke City Council. “Additionally, since the implementation of the new city-issued trash receptacles, we have seen improvement in downtown cleanliness.”
