Seven men are working to make historic Windsor a prettier place to live.

For the last several years, the members of the Windsor Board of Commissioners, the mayor and the town administrator have made it their business to work on getting the town cleaned up.

The task began under former Mayor Bob Spivey and has continued in earnest with Mayor Jimmy Hoggard in place. The five town board members – Hoyt Cooper, Bob Brown, Collins Cooper, David Overton and Joe Alexander – have also continued to make beautifying the town a priority.

At the helm of the day-to-day work is Town Administrator Allen Castelloe.

While emphasizing such important measures as keeping lawns mowed and junked cars moved, the town has also tackled bigger and more important projects.

They have removed unsightly buildings, worked with owners of vacant property to have it cleaned up and stayed in constant contact with those who own property that needs attention.

It’s easy to assume that there isn’t much that can be done when a property owner neglects his or her possessions. That isn’t always the case, however, as sometimes that property becomes a public nuisance and can be handled by local boards.

We would like to see other town councils and even county commissioners get serious about cleaning up the area within their jurisdiction. It’s easy to complain about it but hard to make tough telephone calls to people who don’t want to hear that their property isn’t being kept up.

It’s important for the better good of the community, however, that those people in positions of responsibility make those tough contacts. Cleaning up our region one eyesore at a time will make this an even better place to live.

– The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald