Local 24 Newsreturned to McWhirter Ave in Northaven to see if a dumpster full of trash hadbeen picked up. We found a big improvement following our story four daysearlier.
It is stillNorthaven. Illegal dumping has been a big problem in this neighborhood foryears. Yet this was different. What we found was garbage and trash, andfrankly, it was rancid. On the ground were items that you wouldn’t want yourkids to be within a mile of.
“I haven’tbeen over here for a while,” Northaven resident Hakim Wilkins said, “butI came over. I saw this trash. It’s too much trash. How did they let it getthat far?”
Residents sawcars loaded with trash drive down the street. When they returned, the trash wasgone. All of it dumped in an unoccupied cover at the end of their street. Youdidn’t need to see it to know it was there.
“Itstarted to stink and everything,” Deborah Benson said, “because Ihaven’t had any bug problems in my duplex until they started doing it. We hadspider problems, rats we never had.”
This wasn’tjust a clean up the trash and move on situation. The Shelby County Sheriff’soffice got involved. They were looking at names and addresses found in thetrash to see if they could find the person doing the illegal dumping. Othercounty officials were tracking down the one man who owns this property. All of thishappening after we first told you about the problem.
Katesha Tatesays she’s glad these folks showed up, because “…even after the newsaired it, whatever, and we saw it, there will still cars coming down. We sawone as we were pulling out of the driveway. Another car going down there todump their trash.”
CountyCommissioner Amber Mills represents Northaven.
She is workingwith residents and others on a long-term fix, she says.