news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Here's the latest poop on what's happening in the center city.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. has installed five DOGIPOT stations throughout the area to encourage dog owners to do right by doo.

The hard-plastic dispensers — erected from Center City Park to the Southside neighborhood — provide black, plastic bags for collecting droppings.

Here's the scoop. A DGI official said the dispensers have become necessary as downtown's pooch population has increased, a number that one pet owner puts at between 50 and 100.

"We might as well be proactive and have these out there," Sherry Adams, DGI's interim president , said of the dispensers. "Nobody likes to step in it."

Four more dispensers, which are sold by an Orlando, Fla. , company, will go up later.

"It's a good thing to see," said David Hill, a downtown resident who owns two dogs. "Now, we need to educate the public on them."

The boxes explain the process: pull out a bag, slip it over your hand, pick up the waste, turn the bag inside out, tie it off and drop it in a trash can.

Krissie Hunt, owner of Furr-Bulous Pet Boutique on South Elm Street , says the dispensers won't go to waste. "I see a lot of downtown people, or people who bring their dogs downtown, use them," said Hunt, who takes her dog to work. "So do I. A lot."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or donpatterson@news-record.com