Illegal dump sites are eyesores found in every part of the city, according to the president of the Jackson City Council.
“People will just dump stuff without going to a landfill,” said Ashby Foote, who represents Ward One and serves as president of the council. They don’t want to have to pay a landfill fee or make the effort to get there. It’s a problem in every ward.”
Even Fondren, known for its restaurants and retail, has had to fight illegal dump sites.
“Lately, we’ve had a problem with illegal tire dumps, which is a felony, on the west side of Fondren,” said Rebecca Garrison, executive director of Fondren Renaissance Foundation. “Fortunately, we are close to tracking down the source of those incidents and a prosecution will follow.”
In northeast Jackson, the wooded west end of Westbrook Road, past the Mississippi Basketball and Athletics location and the Jackson Futbal Club soccer fields, is sometimes used as an illegal dumping ground.
“It’s not the people living there but people who just go down the road and push stuff off the back of their trucks,” Foote said. “There’s not much going on at the end of Westbrook Road. It’s hard to police, even though there are security cameras at the Entergy substation on Westbrook Road.”
Behind the empty Briarwood One building on Briarwood Drive, a pile of trash and abandoned shopping carts provide the start of an illegal dump site. A Municipal judge has ordered that the owner demolish the empty office building by Feb. 9.
The Ridgewood Park Neighborhood Association has battled illegal dump sites at the former Virginia College location at Ridgewood Road and Atkins Boulevard and an empty Walgreens store at Ridgewood Road and Ridgewood Court Drive and continue to do so.
“The Virginia College site had inoperable vehicles, litter everywhere, a makeshift home made of cardboard and clothes,” said Ken Wilson, president of the Ridgewood Park Neighborhood Association. “There were multiple articles of clothing laid across the fencing and spray paint on the building.
“At the Walgreens, we found packages with the valuables removed. It appeared someone had been staying in that building. Under the drive-through, there were tons of things dumped there. Articles of clothing. Trash. Just an array of different things that created an eyesore.”
The Ridgewood Park Neighborhood Association cleaned up both locations several times in the spring of 2021 and then contacted Foote for the city’s help when disarray returned to the locations.
Wilson keeps a close eye on both the former Virginia College location and the former Walgreens, so they don’t turn into an impromptu garbage dump again.
The city’s solid waste division needs additional funding, Wilson said, so that additional employees can be hired. The city recently added six additional code enforcement inspectors.
“We need code enforcement to survey areas prone to dumping,” Wilson said. “We should utilize the fire marshal at the Jackson Fire Department and the Jackson Police Department to enforce ordinances on the books so that offenders go to court.”
More communication from the city about its Roll-Off Dumpster Days, which are scheduled on the second Saturday of every month at one location in the city, would be helpful, Wilson said. During a Roll-Off Dumpster Day, dumpsters are available for the disposal of household furniture, small appliances and accessories from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., weather permitting. Tires, chemicals and gas tanks are not accepted.
The city owns and operates a Class I Rubbish Disposal at 6810 S. Frontage Road in Byram. Construction and demolition debris, tree limbs, stumps, leaves, appliances with the motor removed, furniture, sawdust, wood shavings, wood chips, tires and metal appliances are among items accepted.
The fee for the landfill is $5 per cubic yard for construction/demolition waste, rubble, asphalt, asphalt shingles, tree trunks, concrete, dirt and vegetative debris.
Robert Graham, who represents District One of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, has helped clean up illegal dump sites in his district.
He welcomes calls from residents who will let him know where unwanted mattresses, tires, couches, washing machines, refrigerators and freezers and other items have been left illegally.
“It’s gotten much worse,” Graham said, noting that people dump unwanted items in a ditch and elsewhere because they don’t want to pay to get rid of them.
Graham said he has someone who drives throughout District 1 looking for illegal dump sites and removing items.
“We’ve found enough stuff to outfit a house,” he said. “People throw things out in places where they think no one will see them.”
Anyone who would like to point out an illegal dump site may reach Graham at 601-714-6219 or 601-968-6689.
Garrison praised the city’s solid waste department for promptly responding to the most recent tire dump in Fondren. “They were on it the next day,” she said.
Illegal dumping grounds are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the city’s appearance, Garrison said.
“It’s the abandoned cars, abandoned structures, burned out houses, illegal parking, broken water pipes, sewage leaks and clogged drainage pipes,” she said. “Unfortunately, in some parts of the city, Fondren included, it’s so pervasive that it’s now hard to turn things around.”
The city is addressing abandoned structures and getting aggressive about code enforcement issues that impact neighborhood cleanliness, and that’s encouraging, Garrison said.
“We have to hold property owners accountable,” she said. “One negligent property owner can devalue an entire street — even an entire neighborhood.
Garrison said it’s difficult for residents to respect the cleanliness of their neighborhoods when they are dealing with raw sewage and stopped up drains and streets filled with potholes.
“These are things that only the city can address, and we desperately need them to take the lead,” she said. “All of these issues are more than community beautification. They are health and safety issues.”
