Meet Larry Mitchell, a Harnett County advocate

Larry Mitchell, a retired U.S. military veteran who spends most days cleaning Harnett County’s roadsides, has become one of the county’s most persistent voices for tackling litter, civic respect and community involvement.

Mitchell is a veteran who retired from the U.S. military in 2014 and lives with his wife in Cameron’s Lexington Plantation.

He volunteers with the Keep Harnett Beautiful program and reports conditions to the county commissioners. He often repeats the roads: Anderson Creek, Ray, Nursery and Docks.

“I spend a lot of time on Nursery Road, twice a year for two weeks and within a week, it’s bad again. Trash also gets there from the landfill traffic with unsecured loads. Tires, baby strollers, five-gallon paint buckets and adult diapers by the hundreds litter the road. I call Deputy Ivey all the time, and he’s aggressive. I send him photos of mail [from the roadside litter], and he looks for a trend. He found the location of a family dumping diapers. State laws on litter need to change. Heard there’s bills out there wanting to change it from a misdemeanor to a felony,” Mitchell said about his volunteerism five to six days a week.

The Ponderosa Road Convenience Center has a list of items it does not accept, and some of those items end up on the roadside.

“It’s a very emotional topic,” Mitchell said about hauling out over 200 bags of litter a week.

Mitchell’s reports to commissioners have not reduced people littering on roadsides, but he has changed the atmosphere in the chambers.

“They agreed to honor our heroes [veterans] at every meeting, and some people who used to use public comments to complain are not here much now,” Mitchell said about citizens needing to offer solutions to problems, not just complain and that they needed to be respectful.

He said some people wanted to change the commissioners’ meeting times to attract citizens to attend the meetings, but he did not think it would make much difference because people want to “see commissioners articulate amongst themselves.”

“One day at the commissioners’ desk they said, ‘We want you to run for District 1 commissioner.’ I said I was 73 and needed a heart procedure,” Mitchell said about them wanting five Republicans on the board and liking that he was an interactive citizen.

Mitchell also attends most school board meetings and said their recent move to turn the camera away from public speakers was rude.

“It takes thirty minutes to get here, and all of a sudden we’re not showing up in the recordings,” Mitchell said about how the school board handled a wave of citizens bombarding them with disrespect and complaints, mostly about their lack of transparency with discussion between themselves.

He suggested citizens read the county budget because the first ten pages were about the relationship between the commissioners and the school board.

Mitchell said school bus traffic needed work because the military population left for work at the same time as the buses transported students, slowing traffic.

“We are considered transient and need representation. I ask people if they are going to the school board meetings, and they say they are going to another state in three years. The young generation looks at government differently. Say they don’t have time to attend,” Mitchell said about the lack of community spirit and planting trees for shade they will not use.

Mitchell also volunteers as a community watchman in Lexington Plantation.

“See a lot of foreclosures, rentals, 1,300 homes in Lexington. Attracts the military. See multiple families in the homes, but it’s against the HOA. Drug dealing at 1-2 a.m., but neighborhood watch has reduced the night traffic. See people looking in cars and garages left open. My dog can sense people in the area. I warn people to close the garage doors,” Mitchell said about helping his neighbors.

There are 24 programs in Harnett that would love more volunteers.

Mitchell says he’ll keep showing up on the roads, at meetings and in his own neighborhood because Harnett County’s challenges will not fix themselves, and volunteers like him are still the county’s most underused resource.

Dec. 1, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers

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