Editor, Gazette-Journal:

There were several reasons that my wife and I chose to move to Gloucester after spending many years as Newport News residents. While not the main reason for leaving, certainly one of the reasons was the chance to live in a cleaner community. Newport News is a dirty city, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re on a main thoroughfare or in a residential neighborhood. Some residents treat the roads and highways like their personal garbage cans.

Sadly, after less than three weeks as a Gloucester resident, I see signs of the same behavior by some county residents. While we’re very happy to be in the county, at least twice a week I have to patrol the area in front of my home and pick up trash thrown from passing vehicles—beer cans, fast food wrappers, gallon milk bottles and energy drink cans, to name just a few.

Yesterday I was following a pickup down T.C. Walker Road when the driver sticks his arm out of the window and casually tosses a cigarette pack out onto the highway. I had hoped that the county residents would be a bit better than this.

A long time ago, a wise man told me something that fits perfectly here—"even a dog doesn’t c*** where he sleeps." Apparently there are people in both Newport News and Gloucester who are no better than their pets.

Bill Wallace

Gloucester, Va.