May 03, 2007
Thursday

Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with some of the kids associated with the Ketchikan Youth Court. It was an interesting and rewarding time spent with them as I learned what they wanted to accomplish with their lives, their interests, and their attitudes. It was also rewarding as they cleaned up a lot of trash that had been dumped over the years.

On Wednesday the 25th I had the opportunity to look at the areas we had cleaned up. I was saddened to see that someone had maliciously dumped tires at each of the locations we had previously cleaned up. Why do I say maliciously? Because the individual or individuals chose to dump tires at each of the locations, five at the turn around, seven at the first pull out and six at the second pull out. Someone interested in getting rid of tires would have just dumped them at the most convenient location they could find. Some of the rims from the locations matched the rims at other locations. Many were rolled into the brush instead of just dropped where it would have been easier to load them up. The other factor is that most of the beer cans dumped in the areas were the same brand.

When I was working with the KTN Youth Court associates cleaning up the trash, one of them commented "It is amazing how stupid people are!". After seeing the tires dumped in the areas they had just cleaned up, I can only add that they are mean and very short sighted as well.

Why couldn't they have taken them to the landfill? The landfill would take them for free! It is Cleanup Week! Couldn't they plan on getting rid of them correctly for FREE? Since the people that dumped the tires think it is nice to share them with the community, we should ask the sanitation company to share a weeks worth of trash with the dumpers. They could just back up to their property and dispose of it in their driveway or on their vehicles! What is that saying, "Share and share alike!"

The junked Chrysler in the photo has an interesting story behind it. It was dumped at Whipple Spur because the owner didn't want to bother with disposing of it properly. I sent a letter to him stating he needed to remove the vehicle, which he ignored. My next course of action was handing him two citations for $210.00 each and telling him he needed to remove the vehicle. It didn't happen. The next time I met with him I handed him two additional citations for $210.00 each. The vehicle was removed! He has now paid $840.00 to the State and Borough as a reminder of what he should have done correctly in the first place, it would have been much less expensive to tow it to the car crushers instead of Whipple Spur.

I would like to thank all those that participated in helping to clean up Ketchikan Saturday with the efforts to clean up Ketchikan Creek, Thomas Basin, Bar Harbor, South Tongass and Ketchikan in general. It is just sad to see all the trash littering areas that had just been cleaned weeks before and the continued littering in ditches, streams, and harbors.

Much of the trash is in the ditches because of unsecured loads. Just this morning a truck was stopped along N. Tongass and the man got out to pick up the ladder in the traffic lane that had fallen out of his pickup truck! How would you like that through you windshield or radiator? Another is people not taking care of their trash and the bears, dogs, and ravens spreading it around to where it seldom gets picked up but gets blown by the wind to the neighbors property. Secure your loads and your trash so it doesn't get scattered by any method.

Jerry Cegelske
KGB Code Enforcement Officer
Ketchikan, AK

Received April 30, 2007 - Published May 03, 2007

The seven tires on the left were dumped at the first pull out.

 

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