EASLEY – City officials are working on litter collection in downtown’s Old Market Square and are asking patron’s of the new gathering place to help.

Some rubbish complaints may have a simple explanation, according to City Administrator Fox Simons

A recent letter to The Easley Progress complained of litter along a route used by the writer to walk his dog.

The complaints included “hundreds of cigarette butts,” dog feces and baby diapers in city control areas along Pendleton and Main streets and in Old market Square. The writer said he had seen a sofa discarded in Old Market Square.

The area is nearing completion of a series of developments that includes a new amphitheater, a pocket park with a fountain and sitting area and a gathering point for festivals. The area was designed as an attractive destination to help draw people downtown.

“I have witnessed the cigarette butts myself,” said Simons. “We are working to get our arms around it. We have someone out their on a regular basis, maybe not daily, but regularly. We have trash receptacles out there and lots of them. We keep them picked up, so they aren’t overflowing and blowing trash. I don’t see why people can’t take their trash to one of them.”

As for the sofa, Simons said he had not heard of furniture dumped there. He offered that the incident could have been part of a normal collection of larger items for residents. “There are apartments done there,” he said. One of the downtown residents could have placed it for trash pickup by the city. “We pick up furniture one day a week. If you call over there the day before, they will pick it up.”