South Osborne underpass set to receive facelift

The road grime and overgrown weeds on the north side of the South Osborne underpass are more than Darryl Stewart can bear.

As one of 40,000 commuters who pass by the eyesore every day, Stewart has vowed to clean up what he calls a “wasteland,” and he’s enlisted the help of volunteer labour and in-kind contributions to get the job done.

As a result, a major clean-up project is slated to begin May 15, with Stewart and his company, IBEX Payroll, leading the way.

“My staff all like getting involved in the community and finding a way to spend some time outside the office, while making the community look better,” Stewart said.

“The clean-up of the South Osborne underpass provided the perfect opportunity for us to do that.”

The estimated cost of the project is $40,000 but, through in-kind contributions and a $12,000 commitment from the South Osborne Beautification Committee (SOBC), Stewart’s vision has become a reality.

“It is truly a collaborative community effort with a lot of local businesses who have gotten on board,” Stewart said.

The SOBC is no stranger to clean-up efforts involving the South Osborne underpass. Fort Rouge city councillor Jenny Gerbasi is chairperson of the SOBC and says it has been working on the project for the last six years.

“All of the murals you see under there were part of the first phase as well as the seating area outside of the Co-op station, and the new garbage bins,” Gerbasi said.

“This spring we have the second phase of the project coming up, so we are all very excited.”

Gerbasi says the land surrounding the underpass has been neglected because it’s a mixture of railway-owned and private land and no one has taken stewardship of the property.

Stewart kicked the clean-up effort into high gear through his company’s Clean Your Green program.

“It is an initiative we started a few years ago in which we cleaned up the garden in front of our office and had a lot of fun doing it,” Stewart said.

“Since than we’ve been looking for ways to increase our impact.”

With a much larger task at hand, Stewart has challenged other local businesses and organizations to take part, and many have stepped forward.

“What we found out is there are a lot of other businesses who would get involved in projects like this, not so much that they would do it themselves,” Stewart said.

“So we decided we would do the clean up but, as an added incentive to make it happen, we decided to raise $25,000 for Habitat For Humanity in the process, kind of like running a marathon and asking for sponsorships.”

Stewart says local businesses have chipped in and will take care of waste removal, providing topsoil, mulch, landscape plans and volunteer labour. But the company is still short of its goal of raising $25,000.

Anyone who would like to make a contribution can do so at www.cleanyourgreen.com.