Spring has sprung. Faces turn eagerly toward the sun, hoping for just a few minutes of warmth to burn through the winter haze. Crocuses are appearing. A few weeks ago a lone yellow one poked out from dead leaves and other natural debris that has protected a garden near the rear entrance of Trinity Church through the cold, gray winter. Its appearance marked a defiant return of the color and new life we rely on and look for this time of year. Last week it was a patch of purple croci in front of C.H. Booth Library that added to the growing promise of spring.

Despite the flowers and increasing air temperatures, Newtown is looking a little rough around the edges these days. And by edges we mean the sides of the roads, where growing piles of litter are collecting at unfortunate levels. Many have been covered in recent months, but the final melting of even the toughest snowpack has revealed the ugliness of what lies beneath. Recent phone calls and emails from readers and residents have named multiple areas in town that are looking less than stellar. Barnabas Road, Currituck Road, Edmond Road, Schoolhouse Hill Road, and South Main Street are just a few of the roads it was suggested we look at. Each was indeed lined with litter. There are plenty of others that are equally disgraceful.

Spring cleaning traditionally means opening windows, letting fresh air into the house; washing rugs and throw blankets and pillows; deep cleaning bathrooms; degreasing vent hoods and ovens; even replacing filters so vacuums work better. Our mind’s eye even imagines fresh-washed sheets and other linens on a clothesline, drying under the sun while collecting the smell of fresh air. For the truly ambitious there are outdoor tasks — cleaning gutters, pressure washing the deck, patio and siding; washing outdoor furniture, scrubbing the grill, and even cleaning and organizing the garage. Spring cleaning should not include picking up discarded tires in cul-de-sacs, liquor bottles lining roads regularly traveled by school buses, nor single-use coffee cups rolling in breezes.

Public Works employees reportedly pick up several tons of roadside litter every year — the plastic cups, sandwich wrappers, empty cigarette packs, used napkins, and everything else others clearly feel comfortable just tossing out a vehicle window. Years ago, Public Works crews had multiple locations that were essentially satellite dumps. Town employees went out every morning to collect illegally dumped items left by residents and out-of-towners alike. Fortunately that practice has lessened but Town employees still occasionally find an abandoned refrigerator or sofa. Either can be dropped in the metals and bulky waste areas at the transfer station, free of charge for permit holders.

For years, Newtown Lions Club has conducted Lose The Litter Day, when residents are encouraged to “adopt” a road in town, visit the Lions during Newtown Earth Day Festival to pick up garbage bags and plastic gloves, and then go along those roads and pick up trash. The spring clean-up was started in 1991 by The Newtown Environmental Action Team (NEAT), a group founded by resident Judy Holmes to promote recycling and environmental awareness. Lose The Litter was an outgrowth of that effort. The Lions co-sponsored Lose The Litter for a few years before the torch was passed fully into the hands of the local chapter of the international service organization. According to a recent Way We Were column, 1999’s Lose The Litter effort resulted in between 8 and 12 tons of trash picked up, by hand, in one day.

While we certainly applaud the efforts of the Lions and the now-defunct NEAT, it is shameful that a lesson we are all supposed to learn at a young age — littering is wrong — has instead relied on local volunteers for more than three decades for the spring follow-through.