We take a lot of pride in the beauty of Utah Valley’s neighborhoods, and justifiably so. But drive through the cities, and you’ll find evidence of “summer doldrums” in many areas – yards grown shabby out of need for weeding. pruning and general cleanup. In some cases you see a slackening in civic pride that marked the springtime beautification upsurge: Garbage cans left at the curb for a day or two after pickup; shrubs allowed to encroach on the sidewalk; weed-grown parking strips; lawn turning brown. Perhaps the worst eyesores of all are the weed-grown vacant lots. Besides being ugly, they prescent a fire hazard and actually deteriorate the beauty and value of the whole neighborhood. Provo ity’s beautification committee is moving to rekindle civic pride in these “dog days of summer” with a printed appeal delivered to residences and business people. In a positive way, the message encourages businesses, home owners and tenants to “look critically at the property under your responsibility ‘ and to make “beautification our community-wide goal” in the month ahead. To enhance the motivation, one property within each of the 30 designated neighborhoods will be honored with a certificate after Sept. 1 and the citywide beautification winner will receive the ”Mayor’s Award.” Provo City will take the responsibility for its own property, but the individual property owners or tenants have the jurisdiction from the curb to the rear property line, including the parking strips. What about those vacant lots’? Just recently the city council passed a new weedabatement ordinance to be administered through the Fire Department. Under its provisions, streamlined from the old ordinance, me city has authority to hire a contractor to clean up a private lot if the owner hasn’t responded within 10 days of notification. And if the owner doesn’t pay promptly, the bill is attached to his taxes. The city will be in touch with several contractors in case anyone is looking for a recommendation of somebody to do beautification work. Cleanup and beautification should be a year-round project, of course. But there definitely is a need for an extra push right now. The city’s initiative deserves the citizens’ support.