DO YOU SPOT TRASH?
To submit an online complaint directly to the city about dumping, mattresses, tires or overgrown weeds, visit the city’s 311 Citizen Request Center at http://crm.hamilton-city.org
City officials are making a $100,000 effort this year to quickly pick up trash, tires and mattresses scattered throughout Hamilton.
The effort began in February and is aimed at finding items that have been dumped on public grounds as well as overgrown weeds in areas throughout the city, said Adam Helms, the city’s director of resident services
“It’s aimed at improving the image of the city,” Helms said. “We’re focusing on high-visibility areas in the city.”
Since then, crews have picked up 50 mattresses and 1,000 tires and have trimmed 32 overgrown bushes.
Cecelia James, 72, of Hanover Street, wishes city crews would make more stops in her neighborhood. She said she has called for several years about dumping in an alley that runs behind her home.
Five years ago, the Journal-News wrote about her complaints over the alley behind her yard. Back then, the road was littered with a mattress and overflowing garbage cans. Today, mostly empty garbage cans line the alley.
But James said she still calls the city frequently over the alley, and feels officials there often ignore overgrown weeds and dumping on her block.
“People still throw trash there,” James said of the alley. “They (city officials) don’t care about this neighborhood.”
Helms said a crew — dubbed the quick strike team — is made up of two full-time employees and seasonal staff who have been responding to complaints submitted to the city's online website or spotted by fellow employees. They've also been patrolling the city looking for dumping grounds.
“We do what the quick strike team calls ‘freestyling’ sometimes, when they’re out on the job, they’ll notice something and they’ll hop out and take care of it real quickly,” Helms said.
Of the $100,000 the city is planning to spend this year on the team, roughly $35,000 has been allocated to buy tools, from chainsaws to a lawnmower, for the project. The rest is being spent on salaries for seasonal employees. The two full-time employees on the project are employed through the city’s public works department.
Helms said the city is tracking areas where they pick up trash so they can diagnose continuous problem areas. The city also plans to work with the police department to install cameras in some of those problem areas, in hopes of catching offenders.
“We’re tracking every location where we go,” Helms said. “We don’t want to just be cleaning up all of the time. We want to deter illegal dumping.”
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