Block it off

Recently the Bradley County Commission heard a request to close and block off yet another county road because garbage was being dumped there. Mike Smith, 1st District Commissioner who is also employed by the sheriff's department as an environmental control officer supported the closure.

Now wait a minute, lets analyze what is happening here. First, all roads I am aware of have a certain amount of garbage thrown on them - or at least litter trash, some worse than others. If county commissioners close the worse of these, then things being what they are, the trash being dumped will then be dumped somewhere else. Then another road will have to be closed until eventually all county roads will be closed and we will still have the garbage being dumped somewhere. Can anyone see the flawed concept of closing roads because they become dumpsites?

The other side of the coin is having an environmental officer supporting closure when it is his job to enforce the litter and dumping laws seems counter-productive. Obviously, Smith is failing at his job but there could be another reason for this aside from incompetence or laziness. If Smith is facing the same fate as his predecessor, he is probably being given other duties aside from environmental enforcement - which means the sheriff is getting funding for one specialist but using him for something else. Either way paying for an environmental officer is not having the desired effect so should be eliminated from next year's budget.

It may be financially advantageous to pay a garbage collector to regularly visit the known dump sites to pick up the garbage. Then the roads could remain open.

That's what I think. What do you think?


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