Help clean up behind the dumpies

Since this is a family oriented web site, I can’t put into words what I really think about the poor, unfortunate, dump (oops, I meant dumb) “people” who litter. It’s kind of like they missed the lesson on growing up. I’ll just leave it at that.

Fortunately, there are good people who try and clean up after the litterbugs. These good folks do their best to make our area a better place to live. There’s an event coming up this weekend where you can help, too. The City of Farmerville’s Community Service Team is trying to get the city of ready for the upcoming Cleanest City Contest. And clean up behind people who don’t know any better.

Saturday, March 29, will be a big day as the committee has organized a cleanup day as part of the Great American Cleanup. The local focus will be entrances to town, where visitors get their first view of the city. That includes Hwy. 2 and Hwy. 33. Here’s a suggestion: If you are out on the lake, or at a boat ramp this weekend, take some time to tidy up a bit. Even if you aren’t part of the organized effort, do something to help this weekend. It’ll make the place look better and make you feel better. And stop and say a prayer for the people who don’t know better.

Do this for sure: DO NOT LITTER. Don’t do it. Keep your trash until you get somehere to properly dispose of it. And don’t do the dumbest thing of all – throw it in the back of your truck where it can blow out at random and you can act like you are not a litterbug. Bah, hum litterbug.

Litter isn’t a problem that is just in Union Parish. It’s an issue everywhere. But when you have a beautiful lake and beautiful woods like we do, it deserves better than what some people give it. It’s been said before, and it bears being said again — there is a parish wide need for doing better in this area.

One closing thought. When we have visitors, they always love this area. But there is a consistent comment that I hear a lot — “Why do they have those trash dumps along the highway? Isn’t there something you could do about that?” That’s a good question I don’t have the answer to.

This weekend is a prime example. Nearly 1,000 visitors came to Union Parish for the big car, truck and motorcycle show. No matter how they came into town, they had to pass big ugly dumpsters with trash piled up right on the side of the main road. Not a very good “Welcome” sign for visitors or sight for our very own residents to have to look at. Hopefully, all the other great things about the park and lake and town and the people overshadowed that one litter glimpse….