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The Franklin Lions Club cleans the retention pond on Bogart Street every four months in an attempt to beautify the front of City Hall and downtown Franklin. 

Franklin Lions Club President Mark Kitchen added that the Lions try to clean the pond before the trash gets into the Blackwater River.

Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Jeff Turner highlighted how important this cleanup is to his efforts to clean up the Blackwater River.

“The Riverkeeper Program paid for that trash boom that is in that pond,” Turner said, referring to a structure designed to catch and hold debris, branches, leaves and other trash materials. “That boom forces trash over to one side of that pond and keeps tons of trash from getting into the river.”

He noted that the downside of this plan that he hatched is that the pond has to be cleaned every so often, but a local civic organization stepped up to meet this need. 

“The Lions Club signed on to do that task,” he said. “It is a great help to me and quite the community service effort by this group. It’s a community service that certainly should be recognized by the people of Franklin.”