At its June meeting, La Jolla Village Merchants Association saluted community volunteers and discussed fall elections and projects moving ahead, including a Village business survey, a community art walk and the ongoing Sparkle & Shine clean-up campaign. “We’d like to thank Jeffrey Gerwin, who’s taken it upon himself to pay for — and do — all the hard work for cleaning up garbage in our Village,” said Sheila Fortune, the merchant group’s executive director. “He’s doing it out of love of La Jolla.” Fortune asked for community donations of garbage bags to help Gerwin out. Pointing out Gerwin has informed the city that some Village trash cans aren’t being emptied, board member Nancy Warwick noted, “He’s made a difference.” Board member Elsie Arredondo said a grass-roots effort to create a new Village art walk has borne fruit. “We held one in May on Girard and Kline using seed money, and it was a huge success,” Arredondo said, adding the idea moving forward is to “focus on one block at a time.” “We want to grow it every month,” Arredondo said, noting participating merchants are kicking in $25 to pay expenses. The fledgling art walk is being held every second Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. “We’re trying to grow it into something fun our local[s] can do before or after dinner on a Saturday,” Arredondo added. Fortune noted earlier efforts to stage art walks encompassing the entire Village proved difficult to execute and maintain because the coverage area was so large. The association voted unanimously to hold a mail-ballot election rather than have in-person balloting for its annual group election in October. Fortune said the hope is that more busy merchants will participate if they don’t have to physically come in to vote. She added voter participation with walk-in balloting has gradually increased from 80 or 90 to about 110 while noting there are 1,300-plus member merchants in the Village Business Improvement District. Warwick said the Sparkle & Shine campaign, which has raised money to power-wash sidewalks and do other needed beautification projects in the Village, has been so successful that it will be continued next year. In other action, Fortune announced that Mary’s English Kitchen restaurant, after 14 months at 7918 Ivanhoe Ave., has closed and is up for sale.