As Nesquehoning prepares for its America 250/Nesquehoning 202 celebration in June, borough officials are asking residents to take pride in their properties and clean them up if needed.

On Wednesday, several council members and officials stressed the importance of taking pride in your property ahead of the June 13 celebrations, where over 5,000 people are expected to visit because of the festival, as well as the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 coming to Reading and Northern Railroad’s Nesquehoning Regional Railroad Station.

Police Chief Bradley Hess said that officers will be out addressing code complaints.

“Make sure your grass is cut, abandoned vehicles off the roads, and any other code issues, like putting garbage out before the garbage gets picked up,” he said. “We just want people to be aware so that there’s no surprises.”

Mayor Tom Kattner echoed Hess’ thoughts, asking everyone to “clean up your properties.”

“It’s very simple to do,” he said. “If you live here, you own it.”

Kattner said that high grass is one of the main issues when it comes to rodents and snakes near homes and said that cutting your grass helps not only you, but your neighbor keep pests away.

Councilwoman Suzanne Smith said that if someone needs to file a code complaint, there are forms in the borough office that can be filled out.

She said that complaints must be submitted in writing, whether it be via email or through the forms in the office.

In other town cleaning matters, the borough thanked residents for cooperating during the street sweeping in the borough earlier this month.

“The borough, the street department, Mr. (Bob) Pilla, everybody did an awesome job,” Hess said. “It really made it easy for us, everything was signed correctly, it was really pretty each for us (the police) to do what we had to do to get the streets cleared. The residents did a great job. We really didn’t have to get a ton of cars moved. A lot of people did what they had to do. ... We appreciate that because that helps make our job a little bit easier.”

Councilman Paul Kattner said, “Thank you to the majority of citizens of this town for following through with what we did.”