City wages battle against people dumping trash at dead-end road

At the dead end of Moye Road in southeast Columbus, the city is waging a battle against illegal dumpers who keep returning to the area and breaking the law.

Residents have voiced concerns on this stretch of road for the last three months. A day after Thanksgiving, the end of the street was filled Friday with discarded carpet, clothing, bulging garbage bags, roofing and even part of a deer missing both hind quarters.

John C. Hudgison, director of Building Inspections & Code Enforcement Department, is now tasked with cleaning up the dump and trying to identify the lawbreakers. Hudgison recently acquired a small staff from Public Works in a merger with Inspections and Code Enforcement to place enforcement duties under one department.

After going over some earlier reports in the area, Hudgison didn’t have any good news. “They just cleaned that area out about three weeks ago,” the director said in a response.

It appears that some person or a group is using the area as an illegal dumping location. Not much evidence was left for city officials to get a lead on the suspects.

“There was no proof of where or who did the dumping,” Hudgison said. “There is a lot of solid waste and construction waste at this location.”

The dump site is located on a street with homes that range in value from $90,000 to more than $230,000, according to city records.

Since the road was closed by Fort Benning officials more than a decade ago, there is only one way into the neighborhood and one way out. It’s no longer an access point to the military post.

Hudgison didn’t disclosed specific efforts in the area but the city wants to clean up the site and keep illegal dumpers from returning to discard more solid waste.

The city has a list of reasons to get control over areas plagued by unauthorized solid waste. It creates unsanitary conditions, creates fire hazards, causes offensive or obnoxious odors and provides a breeding or harboring place for insects or vermin.

I can’t seem to forget about that partly butchered deer left at the side of the road. It may have wandered upon some illegal dumpers who then killed it and took part of it for a meal.

Columbus is a metropolitan city of more than 200,000 residents. These lawbreakers obviously have no respect for the law, the environment or even the property values of hard-working residents living on Moye Road.

Anyone who notices strange activity at the dead end of Moye Road should give the Inspections & Code Enforcement folks a call at 706-653-4126.

If you’ve seen something that needs attention, give me a call.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 8:33 AM with the headline "City wages battle against people dumping trash at dead-end road."