Roadside Trash Called a Local Embarrassment

County Judge Joe Weber wants to clean up Fayette County.

“We have a tremendous amount of trash in this county,” Weber said. “People throwing out stuff all over the place. Particularly in the bridges, creeks and low areas. It ought to embarrass the people of Fayette County. It embarasses me.”

“I don’t know what the solution is,” Weber said. “But I’m going to work with the Commissioners Court to make sure we have all the ordinances and regulations in place so we can go after these people if and when they’re caught.

“We need to have the right kind of signage in place,” he added. We need some kind of campaign where the County employees can work with the County residents in all the precincts.”

Weber proposed establishing a cleanup day once a quarter.

“We’ve got to get a handle on this,” he said. “I think its a lot worse than what we want to admit. A lot of it probably has to do with development, growth, construction, oil and everything else that comes through here. But I think a lot of it is some of our own. We need to be more conscious of it.”

Weber asked the public for ideas to address the problem.

“I want your ideas and thoughts,” he said. “How can we work together, to have a campaign and attack some of this?”

Pct. 2 resident Rodney Read said citizens need to inform the Sheriff’s Office when they see illegal dumping.

“It all comes back to the citizens – if you don’t let the county know, they can’t fix it,” Read said.

Read said law enforcement can sometimes find the perpetrators by looking through the trash to find identifying information, such as mail. “It takes the citizens to help the County,” Read said.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann said his road and bridge workers look for identifying information whenever they find bags of garbage in the road ditches.

“They’re getting smarter and smarter, they’re not leaving that stuff like they used to,” Brossmann said. “Most of the time its lovely baby diapers.”

Fayette County Elections Administrator Terri Hefner suggested that the County could promote its Adopt a Road program, which was modeled on the State’s Adopt a Highway program.

“We need to look into that as well,” said Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel. “But we need to enforce it. We spend a lot of money on signs with people’s name on there. They see their name, that they adopted it, but then they don’t follow through with the cleanup. They just wanted their name on there. It’s a great program. We just need to make sure they follow through with it.”

Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said his crew once found a couch filled with marijuana in a creek bottom.

“It’s amazing what you will find,” he said.

“One of the hardest things is the tires,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Berckenhoff said. “We picked up over 20 in one stop. The County pays for disposal on them. Last year, I think we spent a couple thousand on them.”

Brossmann said he’s even found the blue bags sold by the Fayette County Recycling Center filled with trash on the side of roads.

“People spend money on them and still throw them in the creek,” Brossmann said. “That makes absolutely no sense.”

Weber asked the public for ideas about how to address the trash problem. Contact the County Judge’s Office by calling (979) 968-6469.