NATCHEZ &8212; Natchez smokers on Main Street will have no excuse not to dispose of their cigarettes after this weekend.

The Mayor&8217;s Beautification Committee, along with Keep Adams County Beautiful, are placing new ashtrays along Main Street.

The black plastic units are a few feet tall with sand-filled barrels at the bottom to collect butts.

Home Hardware Centers and the Downtown Development Association paid for 16 units, about $35 each.

The committee surveyed where the ashtrays would be most effective, and the containers will be placed at intervals on Main Street.

Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Hutchins said getting cigarettes off the sidewalks and out of gardens would help keep downtown nice, for residents and tourists alike.

&8220;We hope they will encourage people not to throw their cigarette butts on the ground, where they don&8217;t look good and wash into storm drains,&8221; Hutchins said.

When it comes time to clean out the containers, the city&8217;s public works department will use its convict labor program to empty them.

&8216;They&8217;re easy to empty, and they look good, too,&8221; Hutchins said.

The committee hoped to get the new units in place before this weekend&8217;s Art and Soul, they said at Thursday&8217;s meeting.

This weekend will be a trial run for the containers.

&8220;We will do another survey after they&8217;re out about a week to see how they&8217;re working,&8221; Hutchins said.

The committee has tried other projects recently to prevent cigarette butts from littering the town.

&8220;We gave pocket ashtrays to the Chamber of Commerce, and they gave them out,&8221; Hutchins said.

&8220;They hold the cigarette butts so they don&8217;t go flying out car windows.&8221;