Community Corner
Eatontown residents take spring cleaning to the streets
Neighbors, business people, students and politicians come together to show their pride in Eatontown.
More than 40 Eatontown residents turned out Sunday to spend the beautiful spring day picking up litter. Volunteers at the the annual Clean-up Eatontown Day removed hundreds of bottles, cans, papers, tires, styrofoam cups, plastic containers, as well as unidentifiable trash from public areas adjoining Routes 35 and 36. “This year, for the first time, we cleaned up Locust Grove Cemetery,” Donald Bretzger, chair of the Pride in Eatontown Committee, organizers of the event said. The cemetery, off South Street near Route 35, has become a focus of interest recently as the burial place of Samuel Johnson, known as Mingo Jack, who, in 1886, was the last person to be lynched in New Jersey. This year’s clean-up attracted families with young children as well as many retired citizens. Not all of the volunteers lives in Eatontown. Jack Pensabene, a teacher at Monmouth Regional, lives in Neptune and Lou Kane and his son Brandon are residents of Neptune City. Amy Byrnes, Patch editor, joined in, too. Other volunteers were recruited from the borough’s Historical Committee, Lion’s Club, and the Pride Committee itself . Ben Levine, general manager of the Monmouth Mall, and Anthony Talerico, borough council president, were there. Still others came out just because they saw a flyer and thought it was the right thing to do. All did their bit to beautify a little patch of Monmouth County. Afterward the volunteers were treated to pizza and cold drinks at the fire house.