The recent cleanup of Lost City netted 76.39 tons of trash and debris disposed of at the Moore County Landfill and more than three tons of tires taken to a Harnett County tire recycling facility.

“It was a good effort,” said Linda Hubbard, a member of the board of Keep Moore County Beautiful.

More than 125 volunteers and people doing court-ordered community service helped with the March 24 cleanup. A 13-member steering committee of residents and community leaders organized the cleanup, with assistance from Keep Moore County Beautiful.

A second cleanup will be helped Saturday, April 28, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone is welcome who wants to help, but Hubbard said she is primarily relying on the community service workers.

For much of the last 20 years, Lost City has been something of an unofficial dumping ground. Organizers of the cleanup hope this will help turn things around for the community.

“We’re working on a plan to keep Lost City free of such large-scale dumping,” she said.

The committee is negotiating with a utility company for telephone poles that could be suspended on chains to block entrance into vacant lots, where the worst of the heavy construction debris, old appliances and other materials were found.

Lost City is surrounded by the town of Southern Pines. Most of the people who own property in the community don’t live there. They have never petitioned Southern Pines to annex their land.

The community is on Eastman Road, which runs off West Pennsylvania Avenue. The county Sheriff’s Department patrols the area. It is within Southern Pines’ extraterritorial zoning jurdisdiction.

The Lost City cleanup steering committee sent 40 registered letters to landowners in December asking for permission to clean up their property. All but a few responded, Hubbard said.