By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer
State Rep. Mike McGeehan wants to leave a MARC on Wissinoming — a cleaner, brighter, Major Artery Revitalization Committee kind of MARC.
“You are going to see an immediate improvement,” McGeehan (D-173rd dist.) said during Wissinoming Civic Association’s April 28 meeting.
MARC is a new non-profit organization created to help Northeast Philadelphia residents clean and beautify their neighborhoods.
Through Gov. Ed Rendell’s support, McGeehan is securing state funding for the organization. He is also working with local City Council members and he wants the community to get involved.
“We have the resources to make a difference, not only to the business community, but to the residential community, too,” McGeehan said.
MARC would work hand-in-hand with other beautification programs, like the Community Life Improvement Program.
Tom Conway, the city’s deputy managing director who also oversees CLIP, is the MARC president. Dave Wyszynski, an aide to McGeehan, will serve as vice president.
The organization’s staffers will work with community and business associations along Torresdale Avenue with the hope that the movement will spread.
Among the top priorities are improving state roads like Torresdale Avenue, Frankford Avenue, Harbison Avenue and Tacony Street and gateways into the community by adding murals and banners representing each community.
Particularly, McGeehan wants to see major revitalization along Torresdale Avenue between Harbison Avenue and Rhawn Street, which spans the Wissinoming, Tacony, East Mayfair and Holmesburg communities.
MARC is planning actively with those neighborhoods as well as Wissinoming.
“We not only have to keep what we have, but we need to improve it and spotlight it,” McGeehan said.
Large street sweepers soon will sweep up the litter along those state roads and residential streets, and flower boxes and banners will be placed for everyone to see as they pass through, Wyszynski said.
“This would be giving a positive first impression along those stretches of state roads” in areas that have been neglected for too long, McGeehan said.
Ten MARC workers will be hired this summer and they’ll be sporting bright blue MARC shirts.
McGeehan would like to see a sign hung in the community showcasing Wissinoming. He asked the civic association members to think of themes for the sign and banners.
Conway, Wyszynski and other staffers will hand out fliers about MARC to businesses and residents soon, and they are recruiting people to volunteer, become MARC community team leaders, or participate in its adopt-a-block program.
The blocks that are adopted by its inhabitants will receive a metal MARC sign “so the community can see that block is involved,” Wyszynski said.
Residents at the civic association meeting suggested placing more trash cans along Torresdale Avenue, removing the weeds that grow in cement cracks and creating a regular schedule for residential street sweeping so neighbors know when to move their cars.
Businesses also will receive packets of information on how they, too, can participate.
The MARC office location has yet to be decided, although McGeehan is looking at places along Torresdale Avenue in Wissinoming. ••
The next Wissinoming Civic Association meeting will take place Wednesday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the Wissinoming Presbyterian Church, Torresdale Avenue and Howell Street.
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com