ANDERSON, SC-
Imagine going to jail for not remembering to bring in your trash cans after your garbage has been collected. Well that is the new legal ordinance that the Anderson City Council has passed in an effort to “make neighborhoods a little nicer.”
Darlene Sanderson is a caregiver for an elderly woman who normally can’t take her trash cans up until late afternoon. She says she completely disagrees with the possibility of paying a fine.
“If we have to make arrangements, I guess we’re going to have to make arrangements, but I’m not going to go to jail for stuff like that, that’s crazy. Nobody should go to jail; don’t we have bigger problems in the world? To me it sounds like money racketeering all the way around.”
Anderson City Council members have confirmed that the second and third reading of the Trash Can Ordinance have passed, so it is now officially a new ordinance. This means residents could face fines and even jail time if they do not remove their garbage can from the street/curb after it is emptied.
Residents in the City of Anderson said some people never put their cans away after trash pickup which many have said they do not like so they have taken to the Anderson City Council to seek that a law be passed to fine and jail offenders who leave their city provided trashcans at the curb after trash pickup.
“You’ve got some trash cans that stay out all week… You know, and I call it just lazy,” said Jerry Norris. Norris is an Anderson resident who takes great pride in his home, and has two city trash cans. Norris is wanting the city council officials to do something about this after stating Monday that on his street alone there were a grand total of three trash cans left outside at the curb and he says that trash pickup was on Friday. City officials have decided that this simply unacceptable and ugly.
“Residents are complaining about it impeding traffic down the sidewalks and you know it just makes our neighborhood look real bad,” said Tony Stewart an Anderson City council member.
For the past 90 days, city officials said at their Monday meeting, they took a survey and found that 17 percent of their 99 hundred cans were left out for 48 hours after trash pickup which initially began the conversation of passing a legal ordinance making it illegal to leave your trash can at the curb even if it is on your own property.
“If you repeatedly, first, second and third time you do not pull your cart back onto your property then there’s an enforcement process,” said a member of council.
Residents would receive a warning the first time they are cited. The second citation would be for 10 dollars, and the third fine would be for 25 dollars. If you are cited after three times, the fine could reach 500 dollars and 30 days in jail.
The city is considering adding the fines to water bills and one council member Stewart who has many elderly residents in his district doesn’t agree.
“$10 a week possibly for a fine is a lot and that’s some decisions I don’t think residents should have to make…whether they get their water cut off because their trash didn’t get taken out to the curb at a proper time or not,” said Stewart.
This new ordinance is already in effect as of June 1, 2016 after being passed quickly and rather quietly by the Anderson City Council. I have talked with many local Anderson residents who had no idea that this topic was even being discussed, much less being seriously considered to be voted into law by the council, and even today July 16, 2016 I have talked to only one resident who is aware of this new law showing just how quietly the council passed this new ordinance.
Welcome to big brother on steroids. Now they are going to tell you that you can be fined, have your water disconnected, and even be jailed for not moving your trash can away from the curb after trash pickup. I also find it very sad that in the council comments they state that the trashcans they provided to city residents are “ugly” and an “eye soar” so that is why they need to be taken away from the curb after trash pickup and placed on the side or back of your home and/or property. I find that funny to call your own trashcans ugly.
I can understand fining a person if they left their trashcan in the street obstructing traffic however, if you have your trashcan sitting on the curb, on the grass in front of the road, in front of your own home, especially a city provided trashcan for trash pickup that you are paying taxes for then why is it any business of the city to tell you that you will be fined for leaving it there.
People we have got to wake up and make our voices heard! We have more important things to do than to fine and jail our fellow citizens for leaving their trashcans at the road. I hope that everyone reading this article will feel the anger and disgust that I feel. If you do please comment and/or message/email me so we can come together with a plan to have this repealed and make our council actually pass some legal ordinances that are beneficial to the residents and tax payers as this is just ridiculous.
Now that is just my editorial opinion but I would love to know what everyone thinks about this issue so let’s talk about it!
The Information War 