BLUE RIDGE, GA — The topic of choice at the March 10th Board of Commissioners meeting was that of litter in county.Over the past several board meetings different people have mentioned the growing litter problem in Fannin County.

All one needs to do is look out their front window of their home at a public road or take notice to the shoulder areas of the highway to see that the concerned citizens make a valid point.

With the three commissioners agreeing that there is a litter problem in the county they made it known that they were open to suggestions to address the problem.

Citizens Helen Mercier and Susan Todd-Raque stood together to speak about the matter and give their opinions on a couple of solutions to the problem.

“We are wanting to take a more positive route in solving the litter problem. We can see that there are signs warning of $1000 signs for littering, but what about using more positive signage,”

said Todd-Raque.

Todd-Raque then suggested using verbiage that would make persuade people to keep our town “beautiful” by not littering.

Mercier then commented to add another positive solution to the problem.

“We are wanting to have an essay contest for the elementary, middle, and high schools with cash prizes for the winners,”

said Mercier.

Mercier mentioned that with raising the awareness of the litter problem to the children and having them write essays about how littering harms our community along with how not littering keeps it beautiful, the children will be able to pursue their parents not to litter themselves.

“My parents taught me growing up that littering was wrong. I don’t know what has happened now but maybe the kids will be able to say, ‘don’t litter’ to their parents once they are more educated on the matter,”

said Mercier.

During the commissioners commentary all three commissioners stated that they were glad that citizens are taking notice to the problem and trying to come up with positive solutions to fix it.

“We really appreciate y’all [Mercier and Todd-Raque] talking about this. We are open to any kind positive solutions and will help anyway we can,”

said commission chair Bill Simonds.

Watch the full meeting below:

Fannin BOC 031015 from Fetch on Vimeo.