It should go without saying, but shame on you if you can’t collect your garbage can from the street when the trucks are finished passing through your neighborhood.

If you have no respect for your own home, please show some for your neighbors and fellow community members, who no doubt work hard each day, by keeping the street you all share clean and free of eyesores.

Those sentiments are pure common sense, but apparently the message wasn’t getting through to enough people in St. John the Baptist Parish, because parish government officials sent out a reminder this month to area residents and media partners that local ordinance maintains there is an allotted time for residents to put out and remove household trash cans.

Garbage cans or containers may not be placed at the street sooner than noon on the day before the scheduled collection day, and must be removed from the street by noon on the day following collection, the ordinance reads.

If a resident’s collection day is Tuesday, the can should not be placed at the street sooner than noon Monday, and should be removed from the street no later than noon Wednesday.

That seems pretty simple, but some are not getting the message.

District VI Councilman Larry Snyder said he first introduced the ordinance more than a year ago because trash cans were left out all week and lying across the curbs in the streets for weeks.

He was worried about traffic wrecks, and rightly said the safety hazard made some neighborhoods “look raggedy.”

Some still aren’t getting the message. The ordinance is over a year old, and continued ignorance or apathy by some prompted a parish reminder this month.

The next step is fines.

While a person convicted of violating the ordinance could face a fine of up to $500, a parish official said last week no residents have been fined in the last three months for breaking the ordinance.

As any parent will tell you, no rule works without the threat of a repercussion.

When residents fail to clean their garbage cans from the curb, they should be warned they are in violation of parish ordinance. The second violation should bring the fine.

Greater safety and cleanliness in our neighborhoods are what we stand to gain.