Penny Fletcher Photo
Operation Fight the Blight, a county-wide effort to clean up areas where there is a lot of trash, especially heavy items like furniture, appliances, old mattresses and tires, continues with a temporary gathering spot for such items opened Sept. 4 at 6515 Riverview Dr. just east of US 41. This operation was originally scheduled to be held at the Gardenville Recreation Center in Gibsonton, but Bill Langford, who manages Hillsborough County’s Special Code Enforcement Unit, said the new location makes it easier to gather garbage from a wider area.
When photographed Sept. 5, Langford was on site with Manuel Acevedo and their crew loading old televisions, refrigerators, hundreds of mattresses and tires into moveable storage bins. “This effort is not to accommodate business owners,” Langford said, after having to turn away construction materials the day before. “This is for residents who cannot get rid of their trash alone, or who have citations. During the operation in Wimauma in July, which was covered extensively in The Current and The Observer News, a combination of Code Enforcement, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Justice and Affordable Housing staffs, and the South County Neighborhood Service Center located in Ruskin worked together and collected more than 12 tons of trash, including 760 pounds of tires — 21 found in road ditches — and 55 tires off residential property. They also inspected 65 properties in the area and secured two abandoned dwellings that were near the school zone, which is a (designated) Child Safe Zone. “While there, the sheriff’s office made 44 arrests, people speeding through the area, some with open warrants, no driver’s license. They found all kinds of things.”
Langford says he is in favor of making it easier for people, especially renters who now must pay at the county dumpsite, to rid themselves of these items so they will not be found abandoned in the woods and in roadside ditches.
People in the area are urged to go to the site before 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16. Langford said the large dumpsters will be removed that night, although there will still be a small one there for minor items the 17th as his crew cleans up the site.
