Parts of Lincoln County showed signs of improvements, but the2003 Keep Lincoln County Beautiful (KLCB) survey ranked the countyas still “slightly littered.”

“We’re looking better,” said Homer Richardson, project leader,in discussing the survey with supervisors during Monday’smeeting.

The survey showed a drop from a 2.3 rating in 2002 to a 1.77rating this year. That represented a 23.19 percent drop.

For the survey, selected areas in each of the five supervisordistricts and in the city are visually inspected and given a score.Scores range from 1, meaning no litter, to 4, signifying extremelylittered.

“This is giving you a look a the same places at the same time,”Richardson said.

Survey sites are kept confidential.

Lincoln County’s overall 1.77 rating placed it just under the”slightly littered” level of 2. Richardson noted improvements overlast year, when all but one of the graded areas had ratings of over2.

“Every time we’d pull up to a place last year, it was reallyawful,” Richardson said.

The city’s litter rating dropped more than a point over thetwo-year period. Last year, the city came in at 2.9 while thisyear’s rate was 1.8, a 38.51 percent improvement.

“It’s quite a change in Brookhaven,” said Richardson, who alsodiscussed survey findings during Tuesday night’s meeting of themayor and board of aldermen.

Among supervisor district, District Three posted the bestimprovement by falling 33.5 percent from 2.77 last year to 1.84this year.

District Five also had a more than 30 percent improvement. Itstotal was down to 1.62, the lowest among the five districts, from a2.37 rate last year.

District Four had the highest litter rating at 1.93. That wasdown from last year’s 2.32.

Richardson said education and litter law enforcement remain thekeys in controlling litter problems.

He said the worse places are cut-through roads, ditches andother areas where people don’t think they will be spotted. Fastfood containers and plastic drink bottles are among themost-frequently dumped items.

Richardson noted some lasting effects once an initial litterbattle is won.

“We’ve found that once a place is cleaned up, it stays cleanlonger,” Richardson said.

In other business Monday, supervisors approved upcoming days offfor county workers due to the holidays.

The board approved Thursday and Friday, Nov. 27-28, forThanksgiving and Thursday, Jan. 1, 2004, for New Year’s Day.Supervisors said county employees would have to use “comp time” ifthey wanted to be off Friday, Jan. 2.

Also, in a departure from the state’s approved Christmas holidayschedule, the board rejected giving half a day off on ChristmasEve, Wednesday, Dec. 24. Christmas Day Thursday, Dec. 25, andFriday, Dec. 26, were approved as days off.

“I don’t have any problem taking Friday off, but let them workall day Christmas Eve,” said District 4 Supervisor W.D. “Doug”Moak.

Also Monday, supervisors voted to apply for a $450,000 stateCommunity Development Block Grant (CDBG) to assist with a waterdrainage project in the Bogue Chitto area. The county must do adoor-to-door survey as part of the project, said Chancery ClerkTillmon Bishop.

The county applied for a grant for the project last year, butwas not funded, Bishop said.