NORWAY – Someone has placed dog owners on notice that they must clean up after their pets.

Nearly two-dozens signs mysteriously appeared on light poles in the municipal parking lot behind the Fare Share Co-op Store on Thursday morning that state, “If your dog poops, please scoop,” and another states, “Please, no dog poop.”

No one has owned up to the signs yet, but it has been learned that a woman walked into Grassroots Graphics on Main Street on Thursday morning with a copy of the two signs and ordered about 20 copies on pink fluorescent 8-by-10-inch paper. The signs were then laminated and placed on the light poles in the Main Street municipal lot.

One woman reported seeing two men taping the laminated copies to the light poles.

“No, no, no, no,” chuckled Road Commissioner Ronald Springer when asked if he or his men at the Highway Department were behind the deed. “It sounds like someone’s been ticked off.”

While the signs brought a smile to the faces of business owners, many agree that the unwanted surprises dogs leave behind can be unamusing.

“During the last few days there has been crap in front of the store. Someone walked into it. That’s certainly not an attraction to have tourists walk into dog crap,” said Art Traficonte, owner of 100 Aker Wood Shop on Main Street.

Traficonte is one of a number of merchants and officials who successfully cleaned up the problem downtown 10 years ago by using signs and other publicity methods. Although there has not been an overwhelming problem since, he said dog owners still allow their pets to use downtown as a bathroom and he believes it is becoming a problem again.

Springer said he has not seen any evidence recently as he drives around the streets, but he recommends any dog owner who lets his dog go in a public area should use a bag or throw it in a waste bin, where it will be taken to Auburn for incineration.

Dog owner Paula Packard said she tries not to let her dog “Trucker” go where he shouldn’t. “I just tell him, ‘No, you have to wait,’ ” she said.

While there are dog ordinances in Norway about letting a dog roam at large, disturb the peace or destroy property that can bring penalties of at least $100, there is no ordinance against letting a dog do its business in a public place.