Beautification Society leaves positive mark on city with help from charitable and community partners

Members of the East Liverpool Beautification Society met to discuss projects to clean up the city. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)
EAST LIVERPOOL –Mary Beth Jones a former member of the ELCPR (East Liverpool Community Partnership for Revitalization), said that East Liverpool Beautification Society has steppede in and continued with positive community enhancements.
Earlier, ELCPR lost some volunteers and Jones had taken a break from some projects.
According to Jones, when Mayor Bobby Smith was running for the mayor and planning to choose then fire Chief Bill Jones as the safety service director, she thought that would be the time to launch a beautification committee. She had the idea of a beautification committee for quite some time, back to a couple of previous administrations. But it did not go anywhere.
“After the election, we did get this off the ground and up and running and myself, Janie (Smith, who is the co-chair with Jones) and others came on board,” Jones said.
The group formed a board, a 501c3 non-profit status, a charter and started holding regular monthly meetings which, at the end of the year, changed to meeting twice a month due to all the activities.
Jones noted that everyone in the group, which began forming in January 2024, wanted to see improvement and beautification in the city.
“If you know anything about East Liverpool, you can see that people who live in East Liverpool and even people who don’t live in East Liverpool anymore have a great fondness for East Liverpool,” she said. “They have great memories of growing up here.”
Jones said that was evident by viewing any of the Facebook pages people have set up about the city such Memories of East Liverpool, Historical East Liverpool and the Beautification Society’s Facebook page.
Jones notes the people on those websites talk about growing up in East Liverpool and the great memories they have.
She believes people are supportive on the Beautification Society’s page and are very complimentary because they want what the society is doing –beautification, promoting the city and making things better.
“This enthusiasm I think again it all relates back to the memories that people have of growing up here and what East Liverpool used to be,” Jones said. “Myself and every member of the Beautification Society all grew up in East Liverpool, all attending East Liverpool schools and still live and work in East Liverpool. So you have people with really, really strong roots.
With the help of many charitable and community partners along with citizens and society members, the Beautification Society has been able to take on several large projects within their first year and leave a positive mark on the city.
Projects started –with help from donations and fundraising –include the beautification of the existing garden/flower beds throughout town, the painting of the light poles in the downtown area and the restoration of the cast aluminum street signs in the downtown area.
The restoration of the garden beds was the first project taken on by the organization and was done with help from The Garden Club and East Liverpool Schools; Career Tech and Landscape Design students who helped tremendously in the efforts to get those down. Work will resume on those in the spring.
Painting of the light poles will also resume in the spring. All the light poles in the downtown area will be repainted with the ones in the Diamond Area already done. Paint for the project was purchased through donations and fundraising efforts. Donations to complete the project are still being accepted and can be made through a check made payable to the Beautification Society and mailed to East Liverpool Beautification Society, c/o City Hall, 126 W. Sixth St., East Liverpool, OH 43920.
The vintage cast aluminum signs, very old – and not like the other signs throughout town –were restored with free paint and labor by Perorazio Autobody located in the East End. The group has also undertaken raising the funds to repaint all the city’s fire hydrants with help from Emory Wright and other community partners.
The projects the group have started will resume in the spring — along with a tree trimming project.
The city has received a generous charitable grant from one of their community partners to cover the trimming of the ornamental trees in the downtown area in the spring. The trees have gotten too large and are quite messy, Jones said.
The East Liverpool Beautification Society has also played a major role in putting up seasonal decorations in town for fall through the holidays. The organization purchased 32 new pre-lit Christmas wreaths which were hung in the downtown area.
Seasonal decorations haven’t been seen to the extent they were this year in many years in the downtown area. Jones noted all the decorations and items acquired can be saved and used again.
Jones stressed that the organization is very grateful for the local charitable foundations, community partners and citizens who have all donated or contributed to help them accomplish what they have so far. She emphasized how thankful the organization is for all supporters and the collaborations formed with schools, charitable organizations and community partners. She certainly hopes to continue building on those.
“Who knows what we are going to come up with moving forward?” Jones said. “We could be working on light poles and as we work through those who knows what will come our way. Since we have formed such great partnerships, if somebody else comes along with a great idea that we think we can embrace, then it’s all the better.”
In addition to beautification of the city, the organization is working to provide community events that families can attend and will provide community entertainment such as the Christmas Festival.
The organization will resume meetings early in the year and start working on new events. Jones said it is just a matter of sitting around the table and discussing what will and what won’t work and what will be well received by the community.
“In less than one year we have really come a long way I think. At our first meeting in January, we didn’t have much knowledge and had to establish our 501c, our articles of incorporation, and follow Roberts Rules, it was a lot to do,” Jones said. “We are so grateful to the folks who have partnered with us –the schools, the garden club, those who donate, our members who come out and help. We are looking forward to more growth in 2025.”
kgarabrandt@mojonews.com