(Michigan City, IN) - Michigan City is cracking down on illegal dumping at a public access site.
The city currently has dumpsters outside its Central Services location on 1801 Kentucky St. The bins are designated receptacles for clean, empty recyclable materials only, such as glass bottles and jars; various forms of paper; flattened cardboard; and aluminum, tin and steel cans.
Cameras have been installed to catch people using the site to dump building debris, furniture, clothing, food waste and other trash illegally. Dumping unauthorized materials may result in criminal charges and fines of up to $15,000.
In a recent press release, Michigan City Vector Control Director Brett Kelley and Street Department Director Shong Smith said they’ve had to redirect precious human resources to clean up after people. Instead of sprucing up Franklin Street in preparation for this weekend’s Patriotic Pride Parade, which took place on Saturday, crews last week had to address the excessive trash that had been dumped illegally.
“We hauled away 21 tons of household items that day, costing the City a lot of resources and valuable manpower,” Smith said.
Kelley said, “We’re trying to clean our city up. We cannot allow this to continue. It makes us look bad, both to visitors and our residents.”
Smith said trash that doesn’t belong at the public access recycling site can be taken to Able Disposal in Chesterton or Waste Management in Kingsbury.
The receptacles are located partially on City property at Central Services, and partially on private property owned by McKinley Design. However, the site is managed by the Solid Waste District of La Porte County.
“There are other outlets for this kind of stuff,” Solid Waste District Executive Director Clay Turner said, motioning to the overturned couches, piles of clothing and other debris present at the site on Monday. “We have an electronics trailer here for anything that has a cord on it. We also do special collections at the La Porte County Fairgrounds twice a year for things like tires, chemicals, books. You can see the schedule for those at www.solidwastedistrict.com.”
