Volunteers from Midtown and Virginia-Highland came out yesterday morning to paint over graffiti and clean up garbage left under the bridge at Piedmont Park, near the dog park. 

"We are going to to be the SWAT team," said Peggy Denby, president of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance and executive director of Keep Atlanta Beautiful. The alliance coordinated the Feb. 5 clean-up with the Virginia-Highland Safety Team. "We are going to keep the bridges clean."

The group on Jan. 15 also cleaned-up under the bridge at Monroe Drive and Virginia Avenue. The bridges, which are part of the BeltLine trail, are popular hangouts for vagrants. Many homeless people spend their nights under the bridges.

"It's a safety issue first," Denby said. 

The volunteers Saturday collected trash, several sleeping bags, cardboard boxes, liquor bottles and uneaten food. "They are given so much that they threw it away," Denby said of a bag of Chick-Fil-A food she found under the bridge. 

Chris Nelson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, joined the group with three volunteers: Midtown resident Berlon Smith and Georgia Tech students Ryan Rolando and Tomas Leon. The four men painted over the graffiti underneath the bridge.

"We just want to discourage people from marring up public property," Nelson said. 

Other clean-up volunteers included John Wolfinger, who leads the Virginia-Highland Safety Team; Don Jones; Ed Seemann, who serves on the board of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance; Ann Seemann; and Sgt. Bill Cooper, patrol manager of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance.