VALLEY GRANDE — Citizens of Valley Grande gathered together Saturday morning to help keep the city ‘simply beautiful.’

Valley Grande held it’s first officially organized citywide cleanup on Saturday, as citizens ventured around the city to help clean up trash scattered about.

Valley Grande Mayor Tom Lee said the cleanup far exceeded expectations for trash collected and turnout.

“It looks like it was far more successful than we thought, but at the same time, we grossly underestimated the amount of trash that we had. But I guess that’s normal,” Lee said. “These folks did wonderful and we had a much bigger turnout than we anticipated. It looks to me like we were able to do anywhere between 80 and 95 percent of the trash. It’s just amazing the pile of trash we got here. It’s just good folks deciding that they’re not going to put up with it anymore and decided to kick in.”

Lee estimates more than 50 people of all ages showed up to help on Saturday, and that doesn’t include the people who cleaned different areas during the week because they weren’t able to attend over the weekend.

Lee said the day produced good weather and participants were served lunch after their morning cleanup efforts.

Lee added the trash will be disposed of with the help of a generous contribution.

“Billy Copeland, who owns one of the trash services out here, volunteered to come pick all the trash up for no cost to the city and that’s a wonderful gesture,” Lee said. “These bags are about 50 pounds a piece is what we’ve estimated, and I’m looking at maybe 100 bags easily by the time we get through with the count. He’s going to get all of that for us, so a lot of hats off and thanks to Billy.”

Lee said there are already plans and ideas about how to do more citywide cleanups on a regular basis.

“We’ve already got a lot of suggestions that this can’t just be once a year, so we’re looking at the opportunity and the possibility of us going at least twice (a year) — maybe once a quarter,” Lee said. “It’s just too successful to let it go.”