There are a couple of phrases that come to my mind when I think about the dumpster the town of Flomaton put behind town hall to offer residents free access to get rid of debris. One is 'No good deed goes unpunished'. The second comes from the Field of Dreams when they said, 'Build it and they will come'.
The Flomaton Town Council tried to help its citizens by putting that dumpster back there. But it has been abused on multiple occasions. The dumpster was designed for residents living inside the town limits of Flomaton giving access to get rid of certain items that may not fit into their garbage can, which they are required to have at home.
The sign in front of the dumpster is pretty clear: 'Dumpster for Town of Flomaton residents only. No dumping by commercial/businesses allowed. No household garbage, no tires, no TVs, no computers, no monitors, no hazardous items'.
The sign ends by saying 'Under surveillance 24 hours a day, fines up to $500 for illegal dumping'.
In the past that 'Under surveillance 24 hours a day' has not been enforced. The Flomaton Town Council voted Monday night (I really thought they had already voted) to put cameras at the dumpster site to make sure the people using the dumpster are residents of the town of Flomaton and that they are not putting illegal things into the dumpster.
The town provides this service free of charge for its residents, but apparently the majority of the stuff dumped is coming from people who don't live in Flomaton. The town provides this service for residents; it's not for businesses and contractors who want a free way to get rid of their leftovers.
Since it's been there, there have been TVs and other electronics dumped. I went by there back in March and there was household garbage spilling out of one plastic bag. I also saw multiple plastic bags containing something, but I didn't open them. The bags I saw would have easily fit into the big blue container every Flomaton resident has at their house.
When I talked to Utilities Superintendent Shaun Moye last month he told me it costs the town about $400 every time the dumpster is taken to the landfill and it averages about three times a month. I wasn't very good at math (I got better when I took Algebra II twice in high school and once in college), but that's $1,200 per month the taxpayers living in the town of Flomaton are paying to haul off other people's trash. If they cut out 'illegal' dumping it may only need dumped every other month.
If the police department needs a vehicle or the utilities department needs a piece of equipment that $1,200 each month would likely cover the cost.
I still don't know why we need the dumpster since we have not only curb-side garbage pickup in our big blue containers and we also have a trash truck that will come around and pick things up at our curb, but many feel the dumpster is needed.
Larry Jones told the council Monday night that he hopes they keep the dumpster because he uses it to get rid of of a lot of cardboard boxes. I'm not going to throw him under the bus about where he told the council the boxes came from. I will tell his wife.
Moye said Monday the illegal dumping slowed down once I ran those pictures back on March 21, but it's still a problem.
The council talked about fences; they talked about people having to come into the town hall and show a driver's license to prove they were a Flomaton resident; they even talked about having to come to town hall to get a key if they put the dumpster behind a fence.
The council ended up settling on keeping the dumpster open 24-7 with cameras that will be monitored by the dispatchers who are in town hall 24-7.
Councilman Buster Crapps and I don't always agree, but we agree to disagree. But I agree with Crapps that if the town starts issuing fines of $500 for people who are illegally dumping in the dumpster it will stop.
“Bust two or three with $500 fines and it will slow down,” Crapps told the council Monday night.
So, be warned, the first person who gets a $500 fine for illegally dumping at the dumpster behind town hall will have his or her name published in the newspaper.
