Downtown Natchez is providing smokers a means of disposing of their cigarette butts.

The Mayor’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.

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

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

“We hope they will encourage people not to throw their cigarette butts on the ground, where they don’t look good and wash into storm drains,” Hutchins said.

The city’s public works department will use its inmate labor program to empty them.

“They’re easy to empty, and they look good, too,” Hutchins said.

This weekend will be a trial run for the containers.

“We will do another survey after they’re out about a week to see how they’re working,” Hutchins said.