Columbus men work to end illegal dumping in Fountain City

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Every Saturday morning, two local businesses get up and pick up trash in the area.

“It was a lot of talk, but no action,” said owner of Top Notch Painting and Home Renovations, Kenneth Hethcox.

They pick up all kinds of waste including illegally dumped furniture, car parts and construction equipment.

“When we come out first we access the area and we’ll see what it’s going to take. Whether we have to use garbage bags or whether we have to pull our double axes out here,” said Hethcox.

Hethcox said he decided to do this after continuously seeing trash and hearing complaints from people on social media.

“A lot of angry citizens that were concerned about the trash clean up, but like I said there was nobody trying to get involved so I decided to step up and get some of this addressed,” said Hethcox.

Mainly picking up trash in the district four area near Kendrick High School, Carver Park and Shirley B. Winston Park - Hethcox says he doesn’t have a specific preference.

District 4 Councilwoman Toiya Tucker says city leaders have littering and illegal dumping fines in place along with stricter code enforcement rules.

“I don’t think people realize that if they are caught that’s a thousand dollar fine they could incur because of illegal dumping. Especially when it only cost a couple of dollars to drop it off legally in our land fields.”

Councilwoman Tucker says District 4 has been taking on the issue of illegal dumping and litter clean up since last year and she is very thankful to have Hethcox and the other volunteers help out.

“Really being a good neighbor a good steward to your community and addressing issues we shouldn’t even have to be addressing and that’s illegal dumping.”

Hethcox hopes to rally together more volunteers to clean up on Saturday mornings. He can be contacted by phone 706-940-9513.

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