City conducts alley cleanup; people urged to stop dumping trash in other people’s alleys

John Key City/Features Editor

More than 60 city employees and citizen volunteers were out Saturday picking up tires, mattresses, construction materials and other things from the city’s alleys and transporting them to the city dump in what City of Dumas Code Enforcement Officer Dustin Carlile said would be a recurring effort to deal with the problem of people dumping trash in alleys in violation of the city’s code.

It is a pretty common experience for homeowners to go to the alley to take the trash out and find someone else’s junk piled up next to the dumpster or leaning against their fence, left there by people who are unwilling to take things to the dump and decide instead to deposit them behind someone else house or in someone else’s alley.  “For some reason, people think it is OK to just put it behind anyone’s house in the alley,” said Carlile.

With limited resources, city employees find it difficult to keep up with the volume of junk.  Carlile said Saturday that the massive cleanup was an effort to deal with the problem.  “Just to try to keep Dumas clean and a safe place to live,” he said.  

There was more to the effort than just cleaning up.  “Part of this is education to let people know that they can take their stuff to the dump.  They are already paying for it.  They don’t have to throw it in their alley or someone else’s alley.  They can drive it the half mile to the dump, and then it is there where it is supposed to be.”

The City of Dumas places dumpsters in the alleys for every four houses — two on one side and two on the other side — to use.  They are all located on one side of the alley to make it easier for workers to drive by and empty them.  The problem is that many people place their large junk that doesn’t fit in the dumpster beside the container, which is not what they are supposed to do.  “Everyone seems to think you should stick all your stuff beside the dumpster.  All you are doing is making a mess for your neighbor across the alley, which isn’t a very neighborly thing to do,” said Carlile.

Carlile said that people who cannot take their junk to the dump should place it behind their own house and call either city hall or the solid waste department and get a work order started for someone to come pick up the items.  “That is already a part of the services you are paying for with the city.”

And then there are the people, including some construction contractors, who take their junk to other people’s alleys.  That is definitely not what they are supposed to do.  “Contractors know they are supposed to take their stuff to the dump.  It is part of the permit they get.  They choose not to for some reason,” said Carlile.  

On Saturday, beginning on Twichell Avenue and moving east, workers and volunteers were going down every alley removing junk.  Carlile said they were moving east to west because those were the alleys where people from outside most often go to dump their trash.  “They pick the neighborhoods that don’t have the $300,000 houses.”  Carlile said people from those neighborhoods feel justifiably aggrieved.  “Those are the people who constantly have to deal with others dumping stuff in their alleys.  We want to make sure those areas are completely squared away before we move into areas where people don’t dump stuff.”

By the end of the day, the workers and volunteers had made it to Maddox Avenue, according to Isidro Renteria, the supervisor of the landfill.  “We didn’t finish the whole town.  It was so much.”  But he was pleased with the effort.   “We are good.  It has been successful.  We got the west side of the city.”  Renteria added that the workers and volunteers had filled nine large trailers with trash.  “There were lots of mattresses, lots of tires — unbelievable how many tires — lots of trash.”

Renteria said there will be other cleanup days in the future, though an exact date has not yet been determined.

Update:  According to City of Dumas officials, the total weight of debris picked up and taken to the landfill was 29.39 tons, including 185 mattresses and 148 tires.