Cleaning up neighborhood dumping ground

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A northeast Houston neighborhood has been turned into a complete dumping ground, with trash, needles, old couches and more tossed in their backyards. And these residents are sick of it.

They take pride in their neighborhood, but can only sit back and watch when others constantly treat it as a dump. Residents say it's been happening for years along Bretshire near Parker.

"On a scale of one to 10, we're 11," said Arnold Larkins, president of the Fontaine Scenic Woods Civic Club. "We're 11 with frustration."

The frustration is over piles and piles of trash illegally dumped along Bretshire Street in northeast Houston -- a problem plaguing the Fountaine Scenic Woods neighborhood for years.

"They've had boats out here before, old couches," one resident said.

Larkins said, "We've had as much as old cars dumped here."

And the fury from these eyesores, fueled by phone calls from fed up residents, has spilled over to Houston cicy council member Jerry Davis, who is now taking these messy matters into his own hands -- literally.

Davis swapped his loafers for work boots to help city crews and volunteers clean up illegal dumping sites in his district. Davis says enough is enough. Residents say it's time for permanent change.

Davis said, "We've got to come together from the government side, city side, as well as the constituents in this area to come together to begin to police this to be able to understand why this is problematic."

"We've battled this a long time but this time hopefully we'll find a remedy and we can come up with something that can make the community a little bit more livable," Larkins said.
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local, samica knight

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Fifth Ward residents upset about illegal dumping

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Some neighbors in the Fifth Ward are complaining about illegal dumping and it's not just all the trash they're concerned about. It's also the fact that they say the city of Houston was doing nothing about it.

Neighbors say they're tired of it. We found out the city has been monitoring this site for some time. But the big problem is that as soon as crews clean up the mess, the illegal dumpers are back in action.

In the 3000 block of Amboy, neighbors like Earline Goffney say the mess is the eyesore they've been stuck dealing with for weeks.

"Now they just dumped this stuff out here. I don't know where this come from," Goffney said. "Next thing you know, it's a pile out there."

It's a huge pile of illegally dumped old furniture, dead tree limbs and other smelly garbage that's spilling into the street in front of an old abandoned and neglected house.

"You see over there, over there, over there. I don't know," said neighbor Manuel Trevino.

Frustrated neighbors say they don't know who's behind all of this dumping.

"The city can come out here and clean up the lot, by the time they are through with the lot, it'd be a truck come by from out of nowhere and be dumping it," Goffney said.

One neighbor claims he's called the city several times to report this nasty nuisance problem. When Eyewitness News checked, we found out the most recent complaint to 311 came in last Thursday.

After our calls Monday, a neighborhood protection inspector was sent out to look at the mess. A few minutes later, a solid waste inspector also showed up.

We've learned the city's inspections and public service division is scheduled to handle the weeds on this lot. And we're told the contractors will also handle the illegal dumping at that time.

Now homeowners like Goffney say they're just glad this garbage will soon be gone.

The inspectors took photos of the mess here and told us the site is under legal review. Solid waste workers showed up Monday afternoon and started removing the trash pile.

We heard from neighbors about a similar situation on Houston's south side back in February.

They told us they were fed up with people using their neighborhood as a dumping ground. They told us the trash had been piling up for months, and their calls to 3-1-1 had been ignored. We started asking questions and by the end of the day, the city was out cleaning up the trash.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, demond fernandez

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