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When Janie Jones Brown was appointed to West Easton Council she came with a desire to rejuvenate community spirit with activities, items that would add aesthetic appeal to the Borough of West Easton, and increased volunteerism.

Her enthusiasm to re-invigorate the Parks & Recreation Committee in West Easton made the decision to appoint her as Chair of that committee easy for me. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic putting a hold on most of her plans, she has still been able to move forward with some.

I also don’t want to forget two other residents. Sharon Niko and Robin Strawn are volunteers who stepped forward to assist her. In recognizing their volunteerism, I created a sub-committee for them to more easily assist the Parks & Recreation Committee on future projects, or submit ideas they may want to provide the Recreation Committee with feasibility reports.

The Parks & Recreation Committee, under the leadership of Mrs. Jones Brown and with the assistance of Sharon Niko and Robin Strawn has already held a borough clean-up event with additional volunteers helping to pick up trash and litter. Thanks to all who participated in that event.

Most recently, a mural project of storm drains has begun. It will not only help with MS4 requirements, but serves as a reminder to residents that our storm drains feed directly into the Lehigh River and are for storm water only.

The idea of painting the area around a storm water drain is not new, as many communities throughout the U.S. have already completed their own mural projects, but doesn’t seem to have caught on in our area.

Locally, West Easton may be among the first, if not the first to paint murals on storm drains, as I’m unaware of any neighboring communities having done so.

Our first drain mural was recently completed and can be found on Keystone Ave., just across from our volunteer fire department. It only awaits the final coats of clear epoxy to help protect it from the elements.

More are planned.

West Easton can be proud of our volunteers and a big “thank you” goes out to all of them for showing pride in our community and the positivity they demonstrate toward West Easton, by making it an even better place to live.