Photo Gallery: Tangerine Greenway and Tomlinson Pond Cleanup

"This is our way of helping. Leisure Services does a good job, but we help out," Councilmember Sam Henderson said.

More than a dozen volunteers helped pick up trash by Tomlinson Pond and the Tangerine Greenway on Saturday, Sept. 10. Gulfport City Councilmember Sam Henderson organized the annual volunteer event.

"It started about four years ago. We come every eight to ten months. Trash gets washed in the pond during heavy rains...It started as a neighborhood project. During (the) rainy season a lot of stuff gets washed up," Henderson said.

Interesting objects found at this cleanup included: a full bottle of cooking oil, pieces of a city park bench and shoes.

Volunteers found cigarette butts just like in other recent city cleanups. But the butts were concentrated in a couple of areas, the skateboard park and where cars park for Gulfport Little League games. Although volunteers found more bottle caps than cigarette butts in the park area.

Vice Mayor David Hastings said he's pushing to stop smoking on the beach and now he's going to push for a no smoking ban in the skate park as well.

"It's horrible to have to legislate common sense," he said.

During the cleanup a volunteer observed someone (not a cleanup participant) urinating on the Little League building. She said using the Little League bathrooms as a shower and bathroom area has become a recent problem.