This is a beautiful time of the year. Flowers and trees are blooming everywhere, everything is greening up, and the time change is allowing us more daylight hours in the afternoon so we can enjoy everything even more.

When nature's beauty shows itself, such as during the spring, it is much easier to notice some of the eyesores around the county. Unfortunately, not everything is beautiful. Our county is still the victim of a lot of littering, not all homeowners and businesses take pride in their property, and too many abandoned buildings are falling into piles of rubble.

I'll use this opportunity to thank Wilton Wilkerson for all he has done to encourage each of us to do our part to "Make Robeson County Clean and Green." I hope you will agree with me that he has made a significant impact on the appearance of the county. Even though our county is far from being as "Clean and Green" as it should be, it is much better than it was several years ago.

Thanks to Wilton's persistence, we will observe "Spring Litter Week" next week. Although every week of the year should be "litter week," this is a special opportunity for each of us to make an extra effort to clean up our part of the county.

According to the recent census figures, there are over 123,000 of us in this county. There are over 600,000 acres of land in the county. Almost 350,000 acres of this land is in swamps and forests, where very few humans venture at any time of the year. This leaves about 250,000 acres of land that can be seen fairly easily from a highway. If my math is correct, this means that if each of us would "adopt" just two acres of land and keep it clean and attractive, this would be a beautiful county. If you can't determine which two acres should be yours, I'm sure Wilton Wilkerson would be more than glad to point it out to you.

Spring Litter Week will be observed Monday, April 22, through Sunday, April 28. During next week, everyone is encouraged to clean up around their homes. Farmers are encouraged to also clean up around their barnyards and equipment storage areas and to make their farms look more attractive.

Many of the cities in the county are joining the clean up efforts by providing special services for their citizens. Additional curbside pickup of yard waste will be conducted during the week. Certain items that are not usually allowed to be placed by the curbside for pickup will be allowed during this week. The county will not charge a tipping fee at the landfill for yard waste during this week.

Many volunteer groups are planning special cleanup activities during next week. Spring-cleaning will be conducted around many of our churches and businesses. Even the Robeson County Fair is working with the Junior Master Gardeners and with Peggy Hardin and her YO youth to do some landscaping to make the fairgrounds look better.

Everyone wants to talk about the bad economic conditions we are experiencing. There is no doubt that budgets are tight with the county and with the state, but have you noticed any decline in the number of vehicles traveling north or south on the interstate as they pass through our county? Many people are still spending money as they travel.

Think of all the benefits we would gain if we could create such an attractive area that more people traveling the interstate would want to stop as they traveled through Robeson County. We are definitely not a place very many people travel to. We are only a place that most people travel through. As they travel through our area, our local economy would get a big boost if more of them stopped for a meal, a motel room, or at a convenience store for a rest stop. Maybe they would be so attracted by the beauty of the area they would spend some time shopping at one of our many retail stores.

There are no miracle cures for our weak economy, and no one is going to be able to snap their fingers and make things change around immediately, but every little bit helps. Let's all do our part to make Robeson County clean and green. Spend some time next week making your part of the county cleaner, greener, and more attractive.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 4/25/02