Individuals, businesses and organizations will soon be sought to help keep the Polly Ann Trail litter-free and looking good.

Sponsors are needed to pay for trash cans to be placed along the recreational trail that winds its way through Addison, Oxford and Orion townships along with the villages of Leonard and Oxford.

“We don’t have enough now,” said Trail Manager Linda Moran at last week’s meeting of the trail’s management council. “I would like to have one at every road crossing,”

Moran is hoping to secure enough sponsorships for 10 to 15 cans to be anchored to map signs along the trail.

“We need things and we don’t have a lot of money,” Moran told this reporter. She said most of the budget is spent on trail maintenance.

Each sponsor would pay for a can with a plaque bearing their name affixed to it.

“I think it’s a great program,” Moran said. “It’s a way to advertise, but not advertise.”

Based on the figures she’s compiled, each metal, rust-resistant trash can with a spring-loaded lid (to keep out rain and snow) is going to cost about $430. That includes delivery, installation and sponsor plaque.

Moran admitted that cost seems “mind-boggling.”

“I have looked everywhere and that is the cheapest one I could find,” she told the council. “Some of these are $600 (or) a $1,000 for a trash can.”

To learn more about the trash can sponsorship program, contact Moran by sending an e-mail to manager@pollyanntrailway.org or by calling (248) 981-1242.