There is an ongoing problem on Broadlawn Avenue and in the Mon-E-Back subdivision regarding illegal dumping. 

At the Dec. 23 Franklin Township Board of Trustees meeting, road supervisor Jim Stevens reported that his department has seen an increase of trash scattered amongst the alleyways. 

“We believe people throw it over the tops of privacy fences on vacant properties,” he said. 

According to trustee Don Cook, they have found mattresses, sofas, chairs and tires in the alleyways, and now Stevens said residents have been throwing household garbage to the mix as well. 

“We just hauled out two big truckloads of trash.” 

“We don’t know how to handle this,” he added. 

Chairman Timothy Guyton called this problem  a “catch-22.” 

“I think when people throw it over the fence and see that it’s being picked up, they think ‘Oh, it must be okay to do this’ so they put more out there, but what they are doing is illegally dumping,” he said. 

A resident at the meeting asked if the township department heads could look into the trash for information on who is responsible for the illegal dumping, but Stevens said if they dig through trash for certain addresses and names, it “becomes a legal action at that point.”

However, Stevens did say he spoke to Franklin Township Police Chief Mike Castle, who is going to look into the matter.