Cigarette Disposal Units Around Town

The Little Compton Town Council discussed potential options to prevent and limit litter around town at Thursday night's meeting. This issue was initially brought up in the spring by residents Robert Marra and Sandy Farr representing the Sogkonate Garden Club.

"They contacted us about a month ago" said Town Council President Robert Mushen, regarding an email. "I actually missed our initial meeting, which pushed this back slightly, but we are attempting to keep this a prioritized issue and get something done relatively quickly. They are both individuals with a vested interested in this."

The item discussed was the potential to require certain businesses and other locations around town to have trash barrels and cigarette disposal units placed outside their establishments. This would extend to "basketball courts, baseball fields, tennis courts, Ponderosa, beaches and landings, Town Hall, the Little Compton Community Center, school, library, restaurants, coffee shops, liquor stores and post office," according to Marra's e-mail.

This potential program would place no additional burden on the town itself, as the responsibilities for emptying and collecting trash would fall upon said businesses.

Town councilors talked about how Little Compton has 55 gallon drums freely availible for any business that wants one, but acknowledged that a smaller size would likely be more convenient for most businesses. Other suggestions the town is looking into include investigating any grant opportunities with the endeavor, taking more action at the town transfer station and potentially developing a "Adopt-A-Road" program, similar to the state's Adopt-A-Highway program.

Little Compton is also looking to increase their utilization of community service workers towards roadside cleanup. This would be done through cooperation with both Portsmouth High School and the Little Compton chief of police.

One of the primary concerns is how to effectively balance clean-up efforts in town and along roads. According to Mushen, one of the letter's "main stated concerns was the amount of cigarette butts around town," a problem that would be considerably lessoned by having disposal units readily availible.