2025 "Spring CLEAN" Will Focus On Lakeshore Park, Hamilton Street Areas
Friday, March 29th, 2025
The return of spring means blooming flowers, baseball, and sunshine - and also the return of spring cleaning. After the success of the first "Spring CLEAN" effort in 2024, the City of Dalton is once again organizing an effort of the Code Enforcement Unit and Public Works Department to spruce up one of our founding neighborhoods. This year, the "Creating Lively Environments and Neighborhoods Initiative" - or "CLEAN" for short - will focus on the neighborhoods surrounding Lakeshore Park and also the neighborhoods along Hamilton Street between Nichols Street and Grace Street. The effort will begin April 7th.
Caption: A map highlights the focus area for the 2025 "Spring CLEAN" initiative
Dalton's "CLEAN" Initiative was modeled after successful projects in other communities such as the "5 X 5" program in Macon, Georgia. In that project, City leaders identified areas of focus that measured five city blocks by five city blocks - thus the "5 X 5" name - and devoted public and private attention and resources on bringing the area back up to code.
Last year, Dalton's first "Spring CLEAN" focused on the neighborhood surrounding the Mack Gaston Community Center and the results were overwhelmingly positive. The focus area covered 140 residential, commercial, and industrial property parcels. The Code Enforcement Unit identified 98 cases in the area. Some of those issues were small violations such as having high grass or inoperable vehicles on properties. Others were more complex, like a property on Straight Street where a resident ended up replacing siding and window trims along with replacing the roof.
"It exceeded my expectations," said Dan Lewallen, the supervisor of the Code Enforcement Unit. "We got a lot more cooperation from property owners and residents than I thought we would. I think all in all, it worked really well. Out of about 140 parcels in that area, we only had to issue citations on one property."
Beginning April 7th, inspectors from the City's Code Enforcement Unit will begin to survey properties in the "Spring CLEAN" focus area to identify property-related issues such as maintenance and upkeep and most importantly, safety issues for residents in the neighborhood. When inspectors locate issues that fall within property maintenance codes and local ordinances, they will contact property owners to inform them of the violations and also help them put together a plan to address the issues. The City of Dalton will also make resources available to help address violations, including holding special "trash amnesty days" for residents where the Public Works Department will pick up accumulated rubbish and debris items that would normally be prohibited from curbside collection. Residents of each street in the focus area will be notified of when these amnesty days will be scheduled.
Some of the code issues that the "Spring CLEAN" will focus on include rubbish and garbage on the properties, inoperable or unregistered vehicles on the property, overgrown vegetation, homes and structures with peeling, chipping, or missing paint, and damaged exteriors.
"There are more commercial properties (in the focus area) this year than there were last year," Lewallen said. "A lot of the issues on commercial property will probably be related to outdoor storage. If they have old racks, junk vehicles, or decaying materials on commercial or manufacturing property, they have to be behind a fence with a screen that you can't see through."
The 2024 "Spring CLEAN" led to a number of remarkable property transformations that improved the appearance and charm of the neighborhoods. Lewallen and the Code Enforcement Unit are hoping for similar results this year.
"I use the term 'halo effect' a lot," Lewallen said. "In a neighborhood, one house being refurbished can lead to other houses around it also getting better. There can be a negative effect as well, one bad house in a neighborhood could bring the rest of the neighborhood down, too. So, we're hoping for a positive halo effect out of it."
