Monday, May 6, 2024
The city of Granbury is cleaner than it has been in months — and it’s all thanks to the community.
On April 13, the city hosted its second Great Granbury Cleanup, where 180 volunteers spent their Saturday morning picking up trash along frequented roadways in town, like U.S. Highway 377 and State Highway 144.
Across the city, students, families, sports teams, church groups, and local service organizations donated their time to give back to the community — picking up more than a ton of trash in the process.
“We had a lot of new people and a lot of people returned back for the Great Granbury Cleanup, so I was very pleased with that,” Mayor Pro Tem Steven Vale said during the event, in a video created by City Broadcast Specialist Chuck Licata. “A lot of trash out of the community and after today, it'll be a lot cleaner.”
“It’s amazing,” Place 6 Council member Greg Corrigan said in the video. “I mean, anytime you can bring a group of people together to do something good for the community, it’s always a blessing.”
“I really feel like people in Granbury really care about where we live,” Place 3 Council member Bruce Wadley said in the video.
During the Granbury City Council meeting April 16, City Manager Chris Coffman recognized Vale, Licata, and Communications Manager Jeff Newpher for their leadership in the program. He also thanked GISD Superintendent Jeremy Glenn and Deputy City Manager Michael Ross for working with approximately 60 Granbury High School students to pick up trash.
"We probably picked up over 2,500 or 3,000 pounds of litter, and that's pretty amazing,” Coffman said. “From the bamboo on 377 to the bridge of the lake past the water treatment, we literally had a pickup load of trash bags that was collected, just in that section alone, so it was very much needed.”
Vale also thanked Coffman for making his event come to life, as he came up with the idea in 2023 while attending a Texas Municipal League training session in San Antonio.
"Chris, thank you for all your leadership, thanks for all the volunteers and it's great to see the community come together,” he said.
Mayor Jim Jarratt said the community’s cleanup efforts did not go unnoticed. He explained how he was in Paradise Bistro when he started talking with a couple from Plano who were in town visiting.
"He says, ‘You know, this may be the cleanest city that I've been in, in years.’ I took that as a ‘Thank you,’” Jarratt said. “And then I'm walking over here tonight, and there's a gentleman who came out and he had what I thought was Tads on his shirt. I said, ‘Tads. Where is that?’ Well, it was Taos, so I misread it, but it generated a conversation and came to find out he is just traveling. He lives in Washington state and he chooses to travel. He did his research, and he picked Granbury. He said, ‘This is a beautiful, beautiful community,’ and I get to take credit for that, but I know who does the work. I want to thank all of you for doing the work and making sure that this place is the kind of community that people come to and say those kinds of things. They're saying it about you, and I appreciate this.”
But the Great Granbury Cleanup wasn’t the only event going on at the time.
The city also hosted its Shred It Instead event April 13, where Granbury residents could take three boxes of old bills, tax returns and bank statements and have them dumped into a mobile shredding truck.
About 423 cars came through the shredding line, with members of the Granbury Volunteer Fire Department serving as volunteers for the shredding process.
During the event, attendees were also given the opportunity to tour a fire truck, meet Granbury’s finest firefighting volunteers, and donate to the Granbury Volunteer Fire Department. Approximately $2,200 was donated to the GVFD and will go toward the purchase of firefighting protective gear.
Shred It Instead was so well attended that the city was forced to close the event 15 minutes early, as the mobile shred truck was filled to capacity. A few residents were also turned away due to the heavy turnout.
Additionally, the city’s biannual bulk trash pickup took place on the same day, with Vale adding that all three events were a “trifecta of cleaning up our community.”
Coffman explained that the city also hopes to form an organization called “Keep Granbury Beautiful,” in which the city would become a beautification affiliate with the state of Texas.
"If you're interested in being a part of ‘Keep Granbury Beautiful,’ please reach out to us,” Coffman added. “We're forming a corporation with a board of directors, and we need volunteers — and we need people who are interested in seeing us continue this program.”
