Once a week for the last several months Terry Squires and Janine Swinford have grabbed their gloves, trash bags, and pick up sticks and headed towards any road in Hermitage that needs a little TLC.
"We've been picking up trash ever since probably around June," Squires said.
What started as complaints during private conversations at home turned into a grassroots movement.
"We complained for years. Finally I told my husband we're going to get out there and do something," Squires said.
"It wasn't always like this," Swinford explained.
"Since October we've picked up over 200 bags of trash and logged many, many hours," said Squires.
Sometimes they have worked alone and sometimes they have had a little extra help, but their goal has never changed.
"We just want to see people take pride in this area," said Squires.
"The hope is people are going to start taking notice of that and start using trash cans instead of the side of the road," said District 12 City Councilman Steve Glover.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation and Metro Public Works have shared jurisdiction over the roads in Hermitage.
"The problem is, is that we've got 500 plus miles of roads, and we just don't have enough labor to go around," said Glover.
There have currently been no plans to change that.
"Unfortunately after we had the downturn on the economy, there were a lot of things that got cut in public works, that was the area that really worked on," said Glover.
So for now, the community will have to rely on good neighbors like Squires and Swinford to pick up where others have thrown out.
"Stop it, I mean really. They need to just come out here and join us," said Swinford.
They've started a group called Hermitage Proud and have planned on starting a non-profit at the beginning of the year that will focus on beautifying Hermitage. For anyone interested in helping, click here.
