In a move designed to set the stage for a multi-faceted city hall driven effort to literally clean up Manteca, department heads and other municipal management personnel volunteered for two hours Thursday to clean up a trashed segment of Moffat Boulevard.

It was done at the same time the city was able to jump through hoops  to get two vehicles removed that had been stripped and abandoned and left in Caltrans right-of-way beneath the 120 Bypass overpass more than three weeks ago.

“It (cleaning up Manteca) is going to take a volunteer effort,” said City Manager Miranda Lutzow.

Senior management — after Lutzow shared that cleaning up Manteca had been identified as one of the City Council’s top priority — started brainstorming ways they could make that happen. During discussions they decided since the effort couldn’t be done without volunteers, they’d volunteer their time to do periodical cleanup efforts such as the one Thursday.

All of the employees involved are salaried. They still had to do their regular job requirements by working longer to make up for their volunteer time.

The 18 municipal staffers that include the acting fire chief, police captains, the city engineer, city clerk, city attorney, city manager, assistant city manager, deputy city manager, and community development director among others spent two hours on the section of Moffat.

They removed mattresses, shopping carts, furniture, and trash. They also mowed weeks and painted over graffiti.

Lutzow noted the community, based on a social media survey, made it clear cleaning up Manteca was their second biggest concern for the city behind addressing the homeless issue.

Among the potential clean-up related efforts the city is working on are:

*Communitywide clean up days — one in the fall and one in the spring — where residents may be able to leave large items that don’t fit in trash carts and other rubbish at curbside or take to drop-off points.

*An adopt a road program much like the Caltrans effort where group, organizations, businesses, or families can adopt segments of  major city streets and remove litter and such on a periodic basis. There would also be signs placed along the street acknowledging their volunteer effort.

*Targeted clean up days for specific areas of town that would enlist community volunteers.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com