One Priest Lake area resident told News 2 that on any given day, she drives past mattresses, full trash bags and dumped furniture on the roadside.
PERCY PRIEST LAKE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Percy Priest Lake community leaders have given residents the chance to get rid of their junk this weekend. The “Bulk Item Drop-off Day” comes as some residents said that trash on the roads and vacant properties have become a problem.
One Priest Lake area resident told News 2 that on any given day, she drives past mattresses, full trash bags and dumped furniture on the roadside. Another resident said that people keep leaving trash in the vacant property behind her house.
“This is a beautiful area,” Founder of Priest Lake Peninsula Neighborhood Network, Michele Vetter, said. “But this is in no way, shape or form beautiful…Nobody wants to live next to the dump.”
Vetter added that it was frustrating to drive around her community and see trash dumped on the side of the roads and vacant properties.
“Anything you can think of: bags of clothes, bags of trash,” Vetter said. “We are a community, we are not a dumping ground.”
Greg Dunigan, with Metro Council District 29’s beautification crew, told News 2 that with all the different sites for dumping, some people are lazy. However, others can’t pay the fees to dump things legally.
“We’ve got some little nooks and crannies in the neighborhood that are perfect for people to tuck in and dump it,” Dunigan said “It’s a constant battle.”
Barry Cross with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) said that illegal dumping can be difficult to prosecute.
“From time to time, we are able to find personal information within the trash and track people down, but even then, it might not even be that person’s trash,” Cross said.
Dunigan hopes a one-stop bulk drop-off station will combat the trash seen in the area.
“We will take it all so you don’t go have to go different places for it,” Dunigan said. “We take the large bulk items and trash. We’ll shred documents for people. We have a clothes donation truck.”
On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., organizations like the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) and Shred-It will take trash or bulk items at Compton’s Foodland.
“Litter begets litter,” Dunigan added. “And cleanliness begets cleanliness.”