Belleville’s annual Community Cleanup grew significantly in 2025, incorporating gardening and landscaping initiatives to mark Earth Day and expanding to include activities for kids.
Longtime residents, municipal employees and schoolchildren joined together to help tidy up the township at the April 26 event organized by Mayor Michael A. Melham, the Town Council, the Department of Public Works, the Belleville Green Team and the Belleville Clean Communities program.
Representatives from the offices of Britnee Timberlake, Carmen Morales and Michael Venezia – all of the 34th Legislative District – also pitched in.
This year’s community cleanup centered in and around Municipal Stadium at Belleville High School, after focusing on cleaning the sides of the roadways along Main Street the past few years.
“We originally looked at doing another cleanup there, the state apparently replaced some fencing along there,” Councilman Vinnie Cozzarelli said. “So, they did a pretty good job of cleaning that area, picking up liter, cutting down weeds. We decided to shift to the area near the high school and that was good because we got a chance to show residents in another part of Belleville helping make their neighborhood look even better is important, too.”
In addition to picking up wind-blown fast food wrappers and stray bottle caps, volunteers undertook a not-so-small beautification project. The group, with the help the DPW, used shovels and rakes to unload and spread two truckloads of mulch.
It’s events like this where Belleville pride sprouts up like tulips, daffodils and other spring flowers, Melham said.
“Pulling together, digging in and literally getting our hands dirty to make our town look a little bit better – there was a lot of pride on display,” Melham said. “Not even the rain could dampen that spirit.”
That spirit spread to even the youngest volunteers, like soon-to-be 2-year-old Gianni Cozzarelli, seen with his dad in photo, who used a toy gardening tool to help with the mulch project.
The kids seemed to have a great a time. They grabbed paint brushes and markers and participated in rock-coloring activities. The rocks were then put on display at the pocket park on Division Avenue.
Children also planted flowers in small pots that they got to bring home, while the DPW passed out tree saplings to the adults.
“On Earth Day, many people choose to act locally, and in Belleville that means working to make the town we live in even cleaner and greener,” Gaby Bennett-Meany, who works as field naturalist when she’s not serving on the municipal Green Team or the Board of Education, said.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.