On Saturday, more than 50 locals gathered in the Hillside Community to help clean up litter and make the area a better place to live, work and play. Then, right after that cleanup, a group gathered at the William J. Griggs Recreation Center to plant trees and put out pine straw to beautify that area.

We have already written at length about the monthly Leaving LaGrange Better Than We Found It cleanup efforts hosted by the city — as well as other beautification efforts throughout the county — so we won’t reiterate those details here. 

However, we would like to pause for a moment to recognize the significance of the fact that a dozens of people continue to take part in these events every month. Two years after the initial discussions at the city and county level on how to deal with litter and make the roads we drive down every day cleaner, greener sights to behold, the City of LaGrange is still hosting monthly cleanups. Over the course of those 18 cleanup events, countless pounds of litter have been removed from local roadways — including an entire tire dump that was discovered during one of those events.

The county is still making its own efforts as well. In addition to the tree planting on Saturday, it hosted a litter cleanup last month.  The Troup County Sheriff’s Office also adopted a mile last year, which it has been working to keep clear of litter.

We’d like to thank those in charge of scheduling these events and everyone who has come out to them for continuing to leave our community a better, cleaner place to live.