On a sunny and windy Wednesday afternoon, members of the Arvada City Council and city staff donned their jackets and picked up a shovel to clean up 600 piles of dog poop.

“No back shots!” city staff joked as they began to shovel poop into garbage bins.

The poop zone, located at the far southeast corner of the lawn at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., was discovered by the Arvada Parks department late last week while attempting to aerate the ground.

As workers prepared the soil, they decided to leave an orange flag wherever a poop pile lay.

Which amounted to more than 600 little flags that “weren’t left by the poop fairy,” according to the city’s Facebook page.

Since then, the city has launched the “Clean Up After Your Dog” campaign, encouraging dog owners to be responsible citizens and dog owners and pick up and properly dispose of their dogs’ poop.

“We want to send two messages,” said Mayor Marc Williams before the March 16 pickup affair. “One, this is an issue that needs to be addressed. And two, we’re not always going to be around to do this.”

Ironically, in an open field next to the center’s sculpture park are several trash bins and doggie bag stations for residents to use when walking their pooches.

If caught in the act, a resident can be fined up to $999 for leaving behind their dog’s mess.

For working on a not-so-pleasant-smelling endeavor, the city staff and council were great sports. But Arvada Urban Renewal Authority Executive Director Maureen Phair echoed the sentiments of many with a final remark to the city’s dog owners:

“People should be a good dog owner, and just pick up the poop!”