SMOKEY POINT — Even before employees of the Smokey Point Safeway reported witnessing criminal activity in their parking lot to the Arlington City Council in March, Jennifer Smith knew she wanted to help clean up the area.

Smith has been meeting with Deputy Police Chief Jonathan Ventura since September to discuss the state of the shopping complex at the southeast corner of the intersection of 172nd Street and Smokey Point Boulevard.

When city officials floated Smith’s idea of an organized volunteer cleanup, during the first of two consecutive community meetings at the end of March, it proved so popular that Ventura felt the need to create a Facebook page for it before the second day’s meeting.

Smith expects close to 200 volunteers to turn out for the May 14 cleanup, with local business owners pledging their employees, and individual citizens stepping up to work alongside young people from the Boys Scouts and Arlington High School, but she’d still welcome more help.

One of the three areas that’s slated to be cleared out Saturday is the empty field behind the Safeway, on the south side of the building, where layered mats of cardboard and clothing are easy to overlook, behind tall shrubs.

“We’re lucky when we don’t find needles here, just other debris,” Smith said. “I’ve been handling loss prevention for retailers and the city for three years, and a lot of the folks we’ve apprehended are transients, who can lay low and bed down here, where they’re less likely to be seen.”

Behind the 7-Eleven store in the same complex, on the east side of the building, the surrounding borders for plants have become dumping grounds for piles of trash, including motorists who empty their cars’ ashtrays on the grounds.

Smith intends to take everything out — the ivy, the shrubs, and all but two of the trees, whose branches the volunteers will be instructed to trim up to five feet above the building’s roofline. She also plans to lay down a thin layer of beauty bark and paint the building, if it doesn’t rain.

“It’s an eyesore, whether you’re walking or driving through,” Smith said. “By removing the shade and the cover, we make it harder to hide. This is the center of Smokey Point, so clearing this out should make a huge difference.”

Smith would love to see this cleanup become a recurring event. She noted that Mayor Barbara Tolbert has requested a similar cleanup for North Arlington, and added that this event is meant to help both businesses and the city show they care about the state of the community.

“After we’ve done this once, we hope it’ll be easier for them to maintain,” Smith said. “Between the city, the chamber and local churches, everyone’s jumped on board this effort.”

Smith also urged the community to discourage transients from settling in the area by directing them to the Arlington Community Resource Center, rather than handing them cash.

“That money just goes right back into drugs,” Smith said. “We’re a giving community, but we need to offer these people a hand-up, not a hand-out.”

The Smokey Point cleanup day is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., which a check-in time of 9:30 a.m., in the Safeway parking lot at 3532 172nd St.

For details, contact Smith at 360-840-8099 or amorcwatch@gmail.com.