Clean-Up Week got off to a ‘trashy’ start

Residents took advantage of the roll-off dumpsters put out by the county this week. These two were on Hwy. 271 just north of the Mount Pleasant City Limits.

By LOU ANTONELLI

Editor-in-Chief

The county-wide Clean-Up Week got off to a rough start last weekend because of some miscommunication between the county and Republic Services.

The county designated March 24 to March 31 at Clean Up Week – Saturday to Saturday – but the roll-off dumpsters weren’t in place until Monday, March 26. “They (the dumpsters) were supposed to be here Saturday,” said County Road Engineer Roger Ledbetter.

He said that as a result people dumped trash where the dumpsters should have been over the weekend. Ledbetter briefed commissioners at a special meeting Monday morning.

“All the dumpsters should be in place today,” he said, and the county had two work crews picking up the trash and putting it in the dumpsters.

“Looks like some people got a head start,” said County Judge Brian Lee.

Phillip Hoffman, assistant to the road engineer, said he made a mistake when Republic asked him when the county needed the dumpsters delivered, and he told them Monday.

“I thought Clean Up Week was Monday through Friday” he said, but then realized the county has publicized a Saturday start date.

Ledbetter  noted that in the future, the county needs to give Republic more advance notice that Clean Up Week is coming.

“They have to move in 17 dumpsters, and they only have three people to do it,” he said.

Judge Lee said Clean Up Week is a victim of its own success. “We do this every year on the third week in March,” he said. “People look forward to this, and they were ready to dump.”