LOCKE - It would have been easy to stay inside Saturday morning, with the cool drizzle that was falling. But a dedicated group of Locke residents had sprucing up to do.

The Locke Community Development group gathered, as they do every spring, to clean up the five garden areas surrounding the town's monuments and signs.

For the group members, the work is worth the satisfaction that comes with making their hometown look great.

“I enjoy making this place look good,” said group leader Jean James.

“My personal goal for this group is to help make Locke a first-class town, and we've come along way. We've found that the community is very supportive, and most people will help.”

The group typically has about eight members helping; four were out working on Saturday. Karen Adams said they maintain the gardens throughout the summer.

“We recruit through word of mouth, flyers, and the Locke newsletter,” she said while handing mulch and gardening tools to Ken Devine, another participant in the cleanup.

Devine may be the most thankful person that the group does its work..

“We've been doing this for years, but before that, Ken did it without much help,” James said. “He took care of these gardens before there was a group. But we decided to get together and distribute the workload.”

When the group was satisfied with the fresh red tulips and mulch patches in the Memorial Park on this day, they began tossing rakes, shovels and mulch into a pickup truck to move on to the four other locations around the town.

James said the group will begin planting later in the month in preparation for a Memorial Day ceremony.