I had occasion to visit a restaurant in downtown Southern Pines on Saturday evening of the recent Easter weekend. I was dismayed at the amount of trash left overflowing the municipal trash receptacles at several locations, especially at the corner of NW Broad and New Hampshire.

Please, downtown business owners, if you have the good fortune in this economy to enjoy a robust trade during the weekend and your customers fill the town trash receptacles to overflowing, have the good conscience and sense of community pride to bag and remove that trash when your business closes that evening. There were paper napkins, hot dog trays, ice cream cups, drink cups, etc., over the top of some receptacles and trash blowing down our main street.

The public works department does an excellent job of keeping the downtown business district clean and attractive. Please do your part to help out on busy weekends.

Jocelyn Schlagetter

Aberdeen