An Elm Street Industrial Park businessman contacted us this week peeved about trash he says repeatedly blows onto his property from a neighboring business.

We don’t blame him for getting hot under the collar, if as he says, the situation has been going on for two years.

It’s a shame when residents and business people work so hard to keep up their property and careless, thoughtless individuals treat it like a garbage dump.

A group of industrial recruiters are diligently working to bring new manufacturing and commercial firms to this community to provide jobs. It complicates their mission when they have to apologize to visitors for the condition of our roadsides.

Litter gives the whole community a black eye even before potential residents have a chance to get to know all the excellent advantages of living and doing business in Athens and Limestone County.

Roadside and yard trash makes it seem as though we just don’t care.

The City Council is calling for a crackdown on litterers, and to their credit, they’ve funded two code enforcement officers to work with Lynne Hart and Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful to try enforce corrective measures in a more timely manner.

Hart says it’s working, even though not fast enough for some folks. She urges everyone to break out of their “Silent Majority” mode and report litters.

And while we’re at it, we need to bend over and pick up some litter.