They found worn-out bungee cords, chicken bones and thousands ofcigarette butts interwoven into the green grass. They even found aperfectly good, unopened bottle of Dr Pepper, though neither mancared to drink it.

The earthen medians at Brookhaven’s largest intersection -Brookway Boulevard and Highway 51 – were plum nasty when KeepLincoln County Beautiful member Homer Richardson and Lincoln CountyLitter Control Coordinator Ronnie Durr kicked off the GreatAmerican Cleanup Tuesday. With big plastic rakes and equipment onloan from Troy-Bilt, they organized all the debris, sucked it intoa machine and bagged it up to make the intersection cleanagain.

They’re hoping their efforts are contagious.

“This is a time when people are probably more in the mood toclean up because they’re wanting to get outside anyway,” Richardsonsaid. “I don’t think people realize how much trash accumulates ifthey’re not on it all the time.”

The annual cleanup has arrived, and KLCB needs civic clubs,church groups and anyone who likes clean streets to pull on a pairof gloves and pitch in by designating an area and pledging to ridit of litter. Hundreds of industrial-strength trash bags areavailable to any organization wishing to help, and may be picked upby registering with county litter control at the District Two barnon Old Highway 51.

Groups can call the barn at 601-835-1987 to register and claimthe bags, and can bring the loaded bags back there fordisposal.

“There’s enough bags that if enough groups come and sign up, wecan clean up all of Brookhaven,” Durr said. “It’s the same onesadvertised on TV – you can put anything you want in them. We’ve gotthose and free water for any group who wants to help out.”

The task may seem daunting, but KLCB isn’t asking the churchladies to adopt an entire mile of interstate.

Groups interested in contributing to the beautification ofLincoln County need to find an area that’s easy for them to handle- not too big, not too small and easily accessible. Individuals andfamilies may choose to tackle the area around their mailboxes andtheir parts of the streets, while civic and church groups may gofor city streets, county roads or larger public places.

If multiple groups clean up multiple small areas, pretty soon alarge area will be clean, Richardson said.

“It’s not that hard and it doesn’t take much,” he said. “Don’tpick a place that’s too big, too hard or too dangerous, look for aplace that’s convenient for you to be able to clean up.”

Hopes are that creating clean swaths of Lincoln County will helpkeep them clean, Durr said. The factors that go into that can beanything from guilt to frustration to plain common sense.

“When a civic group takes on the responsibility of cleaning upan area, it just enhances the beauty of that street and itencourages people not to litter,” he said. “If you pick up litterreligiously like we do, you learn not to like litter. It spreadsthe message – ‘Don’t throw that out, I have to pick it up!'”

For those dealing with large, bulky, hard-to-dispose-of trash,the most noticeable part of the Great American Cleanup begins nextThursday, when the first super-sized trash bin will be wheeled intoplace on Monticello Street in District One. The big bins willrotate around the county’s five districts throughout the month andinto May.