City, county, and business leaders are working on plans to clean up the appearance of Saint Joseph and Buchanan County. Western District Commissioner Ron Hook says he and Hy-Vee manager Brad McAnnally have been working with Mayor Bill Falkner.

“Getting together a program to not only benefit the county but to benefit the city in just changing the image of what Saint Joseph and Buchanan County are in right now and trying to clean up that image a little bit,”  Hook said.

Hook points out that  Community Alliance surveys have ranked litter as one of the top five concerns of area residents. Hook is now in the second year of a program that uses volunteer jail inmates to clean up trash along county roads. He says an expanded version of the program in the city and county could help the area spruce-up its image.