unnamed (10)Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri has been conducting Neighborhood Quality of Life Sweeps every Wednesday from April until December; weather permitting, since he came into office.

The Neighborhood sweep is a way of restoring pride to the City. “We want to bring the hope back to them. This city is a great area. We have great people out there, and we want people to feel safe and we want it to be clean for them,” Mayor Palmieri said.

The program’s biggest success has been putting people in touch with department heads to identify and solve problems.

Today’s Sweep in Cornhill definitely affected the quality of life for four young men he met on the walk through the neighborhood.

The young men came up to Mayor just to shake his hand and say hello.  While talking to them he asked why they didn’t ride their bike over to one of the City pools to cool off.  He was told they couldn’t because their bikes had been stolen the night before.

UPD Deputy Chief Ed Noonan overheard the conversation, and a member of the Thomas Lindsey Foundation called Cpt. D.E. Cinque and Lt. M.V. D’Ambro to see what the foundation could do.

That one phone call set a chain of events in motion.  Within a short period of time they were both on the scene and ready to help.

The four boys were picked up and brought to Wal-Mart in North Utica to choose brand new bicycles – courtesy of the Thomas Lindsey Foundation.  This snowballed into a mini community event.  Wal-Mart mangers helped the boys pick out their new rides – adjusted the bikes to fit each of them and then donated helmets to keep them safe while the ride.

Once again incidences like this show that Utica is a great and caring community.  This to some may seem a small gesture to some, but to these four boys it was major.  One boy commented that this is the first time he has had a bike with brakes.

Mayor Palmieri said, “This is all part of our never-ending commitment to provide a better quality of life in the City of Utica.” “Keep it Clean!” “Keep it Safe!”

By martha

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