Tires and dangerous and hazardous items are among the items that the city of Grovetown doesn’t pick up, but residents are putting out at the curb anyway, causing other issues.
Grovetown City Administrator Elaine Matthews informed city council members of a roadside trash issue at Tuesday’s meeting.
The City of Grovetown has a rough trash pickup for citizens that is on a bi-weekly schedule according to the City of Grovetown’s website.
Rough trash refers to items such as grass clippings, leaves, tree limbs and broken furniture. The city does not pick up tires, dangerous or hazardous materials, paint, materials resulting from household repairs or debris created or left behind by contractors working on private property.
“What is happening in a lot of areas of town we are getting household trash put at the roadside to pick up,” Matthews said. “We stopped picking up tires a long time, but we still get tires put there, and if we don’t pick them up, they roll them in the ditch.”
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At Tuesday’s meeting, Matthews went through several pictured examples which showed a heavy amount of trash and some that should not be put on the street.
Matthews also said there was a large pick up on one street in Grovetown where they had code enforcement go to. It was found that the content and trash did not come from the Grovetown area. The content was generated by someone who moved to the Grovetown area from Atlanta and dumped it in the street.
“This is a weekly issue,” Matthews said. “I passed through one neighborhood where there were 11 or 12 mattresses piled up in front of the house and there was no house on that street big enough for 11 or 12 sets of mattresses, so this stuff is coming from somewhere.”
Matthews said picking up the trash is not the only issue, but it is a safety issue with trash being in the roadway and also a cost of tipping fees.
“It is a problem with the tipping fees, it is not just a matter of us having to pick it up, but we have to pay the tipping fees on this, which is quite expensive,” Matthews said.
Grovetown City Council member Deborah Fisher also gave her thoughts on the issue.
“I agree, I think we need to address this, address it aggressively, but the same time we have a committee ongoing for storm water, and I think when we address the ordinance, I think we also need to combine that in some kind of way because right now we are picking up leaves on the road and that is okay, but when we pile leaves on the side of the street or lose grass, this stuff washes down the drain and contributes significantly to our storm water issues in the city and can cause flooding,” she said. “So, I’d like for us to address that and the rough trash and trash disposal.”
Fines or an ordinance for this issue may be discussed at a future work session or meeting.
“I don’t know if we need to come up with a list of fines, but we definitely need to have an ordinance with some teeth in it,” Matthews said.
Chris Rickerson is a staff reporter covering Columbia County government and general assignment topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at chris@theaugustapress.com.
