About 20 west side Montgomery residents grabbed plastic bags, gloves and boots and headed out to the Foxmoor and Fairfield Way subdivisions on Saturday morning to clean litter from around the ponds.

As Jon Westmaas, clad in rubber waders, fished bigger items out of the ponds, kids and their parents filled garbage bags with trash and debris, much of which had blown into the pond area from uncovered garbage bins and recycling carts, according to organizer (and Montgomery trustee) Stan Bond.

This is the fifth year the west side residents have banded together to pick up litter and trash around the ponds, and they do it three times a year, said Bond, the chair of the village’s Beautification Committee. This time, he said, they found less trash to collect, which he attributes to the new covered recycling carts provided to all homes by Allied Waste last month.

The cleanup efforts started, Bond said, after plastic bags and other debris clogged up the outflow of the Foxmoor basin some years ago, causing flooding in the basements there.

At one point on Saturday morning, a plastic garbage bucket was found floating in the pond. At another, brothers Roman and Levi Herkman discovered a long blue tarp, abandoned and covered in mud.

The cleanup efforts, Bond said, are important because they get people involved in the upkeep of the basins in their neighborhoods. The village, along with Pizzo and Associates, the company charged with maintaining those basins, has started a steward program, seeking residents who want to take an active role in nurturing the natural grass plantings.

Those interested in becoming a steward can call Public Works Director Mike Pubentz at 630-896-9241. Those interested in joining future cleanups can contact Bond at 630-440-1007.