Woman issued criminal summons for yet another alleged illegal dumping incident
Published 8:39 am Friday, May 17, 2019
- Star Photo/Kevin Green Carter County Landfill
Circuit Court Judge Keith Bowers’ docket will have yet another illegal dumping case to contend with because of a criminal summons that was filed by the Solid Waste Director for Carter County against a woman earlier this week.
Benny Lyons, who has been the county’s solid waste director for 12 years, was prompted to file the summons Tuesday after an unidentified woman was allegedly caught by a security camera dumping a couch a few feet from the entrance to the county landfill located on Minton Hollow Road just minutes after it closed.
Lyons, like many Carter Countians, has become “fed up” with the rash of illegal dumpings that have been occurring with ever-increasing frequency this year, predominately along Teaberry Road.
According to Lyons, the woman could have come back the next day when the landfill was open to dispose of the couch for only $8. Instead, she allegedly removed it from the top of the van she was driving and dumped it in a stream near the landfill that runs year round.
“We got one of the prettiest counties with mountains and streams and some people just do not care,” said Lyons. “You cannot take off for the holidays and they will dump outside the gate or road.”
While Teaberry Road and now the county landfill have been in the news recently, Lyons said illegal dumping has pretty much gone unnoticed in other areas of the county such as the Blue Hole Falls in Stoney Creek.
Lyons said he would like to see stiffer penalties given to convicted dumping offenders to include having to work out community service “in the great world of garbage” as well as higher fines.