'Bernards Beautification Day' Set for April 21

Local residents are invited to grab some work gloves and join in with the Bernards Township Beautification Task Force and other volunteers to help clean up the gateway into the township at another "Bernards Beautification Day," set for April 21.

The project to clean up ramps at Interstate 287, a major entrance into Bernards Township and Bernardsville, was first held in October 2010, and also last spring.

The task force is sponsoring the clean-up activities with the goal of helping to beautify and enhance Bernards Township, according to an announcement from the township.

The task forces is partnering with the Bernards Township Community Service Department and will be assisted by the

The event will kick off with an orientation and welcome beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Community Service Building on Stonehouse Road.

As in the past, several community organizations have agreed to participate in the project. Volunteers are expected from the Rotary Club of the Somerset Hills, the staff at and employees from the Lyons Veterans Medical Center staff.

That morning, the community service department will provide the volunteers with equipment and materials to pick up trash. Township Police Department will assist with traffic control.

The organizers said last spring that there had been a large accumulation of additional trash at the highway entrance and exits that had been cleaned up the as the first clean-up project sponsored by a township beautification task force.

At the first clean-up, volunteers reportedly collected 50 large trash bags worth of  lunch bags, beer cans and other discarded trash, much of it apparently tossed from vehicles heading along entrance and exit ramps for Route 287 interchanges 30A and 30B.