When local Ford dealer Dave Moore took a serious look around Beeville last year, he realized he had ignored some of the eyesores around town.

“It’s more about awareness,” Moore said. People who live and work in Beeville get used to seeing trashy areas and learn to ignore them.

But when a friend of his drove through Beeville months ago on U.S. Highway 59 and later asked Moore when that street would be cleaned up, Moore became aware.

For Moore’s efforts in making others aware, the owner of Dave Moore Ford became this month’s recipient of the Cleaning Up Beeville-One Block At A Time Award.

Moore is the first business leader to receive the new honor. He was given a plaque and a roving award that will be passed along to subsequent winners Monday afternoon by Beeville Main Street Manager Michelle Wright.

“Dave Moore and his team of cleanup artists are doing a fantastic job of getting businesses, residents and even our young people to take a close look at how we care for the city we live in,” Wright said.

The Main Street manager said Moore’s most important contribution to the problem is passing on to others that “it is not someone else’s responsibility to clean up around us. But it is up to you and me,” Wright said.

Moore said his greatest experience in the clean-up effort came when he enlisted the help of A.C. Jones High School Athletic Director Troy Moses and his Trojan football players in policing the high school campus.

As the group was finishing the project, Moore said he pointed to the paper and trash that had accumulated along Trojan Drive, south of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, and the athletes realized that they, too, had learned to ignore a problem.

The team then cleaned up all along Trojan Drive.

In the days since, Moore has worked closely with Assistant City Compliance Officer Ronald “Buddy” Hardy in attacking the rubbish problem in other parts of town.

Moore said the local Navy recruiter at the Dollar Tree Plaza just west of the supercenter has been a great help in cleaning up that area.

“Those little things that we don’t think about on a daily basis can make a difference,” Wright said.

People driving through Beeville see things that the rest of us do not, Wright commented. “First impressions are made in the first seven seconds.”

Moore said he is now interested in getting the rest of the U.S. Highway 59 thoroughfare cleaned.

“I saw a quote one day that read ‘Your mother doesn’t live here, clean up your own mess,’” Wright said. “We live in a great city. But there’s always room for improvement. One way we can improve where we live is for each of us to look at what we are doing with our own trash, or the weeds in our yard, or around our businesses,” Wright said.

“We should not expect someone else to clean up after us or excuse our mess,” Wright said.

Moore urged anybody who has an idea on how to clean up Beeville and keep it clean to call Wright and share one’s thoughts.

Every idea helps. And every effort helps even more.

Gary Kent is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 120, or at reporter@mySouTex.com.