I was out walking the other night and saw something that made me look twice. Where I live, it is not uncommon to see lazy people toss fast food wrappers and empty bottles and cans out their window as they go obliviously on their way.
Why they can’t save their trash until they get to the next convenience store and toss it in the trash can is beyond me. I hate to think that people engage in this infantile and foolish behavior for no reason, after all. But apparently they do, despite the fact that if a nearby trooper or deputy sees them they can get ticketed for it.
But, I saw something the other night that surprised me.
Somebody had tossed out a well-loaded diaper.
For a couple of weeks now, I have been finding nails and roofing tacks on the streets of Logan. Mostly on the street itself and near the sidewalks on Stratton Street.
I have walked these streets for years, and I have never seen so many nails on the streets. This was all brought home to me yesterday when I was telling a good friend about my tire sprouting a leak over the weekend and complaining it was a good tire, not a worn one.
“I got a flat on a new tire, too,” he told me.
He also pointed out the trash problem we have in our area that’s worse than ever. It’s not uncommon to see dirty diapers, soda bottles and cans and other items of debris scattered everywhere. On some days, including Sundays, garbage bins and cans are overflowing.
Putting your garbage out before collection day is a bad idea. Dogs and rodents get into it looking for snacks. It gets strewn around. Where I live, most folks wait and put their trash out the night before the garbage truck arrives.
I heard a complaint last week that sounded similar to complaints I hear in other areas, but this time it came from a rural community not a municipality.
Residents of the Omar area were complaining about an old apartment they say is run down. Apparently, people are still staying in it even though the utilities have been cut off.
Any time you have abandoned structures in a community they can become problematic. Without people living in a structure and taking care of it, walls buckle, roofs sink and floors sag. Drug users and dealers begin using it as a base for criminal activity. Prostitutes turn tricks in abandoned dwellings and winos and hobos use them to flop in. These characters strew rubbish around and that brings in rats.
The next thing you know, your abandoned dwelling has gone from an eyesore to a public health menace.
Many of the public meetings I attend in Logan and West Logan and other places are taken up with discussions about getting rid of dilapidated and ramshackle old buildings which have been abandoned by their owners. It’s a common topic at town council meetings from one end of the county to the other.
The problem is that it can be expensive to tear these places down.
A few years ago the city was pretty successful in getting a grant to remove the old Pioneer Hotel from downtown Logan.
Not so long ago, I spoke with members of the Logan County Commission about this problem which affects so many communities in our area. The commission has some high hopes in regards to a proposal they have made to the state about a countywide cleanup. I am hoping it is successful because you can’t keep this area a tourist attraction if it’s covered in trash and debris.
Bob Wellman