MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An Orange Mound community organizer is working to keep Memphis streets clean.
Warren Smith with the Orange Mound Blight Patrol is being met with resistance from whoever is illegal dumping massive amounts of trash in the area.
Smith the large amounts of trash makes the neighborhood look awful. He reached out to ABC24 to seek solutions on what the City of Memphis is doing to address their blight concerns.
"You see littering...so we're trying to keep our neighborhood clean. We love our community, and we're going to keep our community safe," Smith said.
Smith said most of the illegal dumping is in the area of Airways Blvd. and Cable Ave. He said once a month, their blight patrol team of 150, including the youth, tries to reduce the amount of trash in their community.
"You don't need to stay out here, but we got to keep Orange Mound clean. People who say they love Orange Mound, let's take our neighborhood back," he said.
The City of Memphis said their environmental code enforcement will be investigating the illegal dumping and they plan to notify the property owners where the trash is located.
Hope Miller, who works at the Orange Mound Grill, which is nearby the area where the illegal dumping is located, said she believes the city should increasing fines.
"I'm hoping the city will come up with more expensive fines, and then maybe they will hire someone to do a quarterly or routinely cleanup," Miller said.
Smith said they are working with their Memphis City councilor, Jana Swearengen-Washington, about installing lights and cameras under the bridge where the illegal dumping is taking place. He believes that could be solution to mitigating the illegal dumping.
Smith told ABC24 they will be having a community cleanup event at 1461 North Pendleton Avenue from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30,