Neosho Daily Comments on Illegal Dumping at Allen Bridge

Below is today's NDN editorial opinion on the recently discovered illegal dumping at the Allen Bridge park.  I have to agree - it is ridiculous.  I'm seeing this kind of activity more and more as I drive around our beautiful city and county.  I hope the culprits are found and prosecuted to the fullest limits of the law. 

As responsible people, most of us don’t litter. We don’t dump trash in public parks or fishing areas, much less think of dumping our construction waste there.

But there are some unscrupulous people out there who apparently don’t think anything of dumping not one, but maybe as many as four loads of roofing materials at the Allen Bridge public access. The area is used primarily for fishing and other water-related recreation.

Last week, it was discovered someone dumped a load of roofing material at Allen Bridge. Other loads followed a few days afterward.

The Missouri Department of Conservation controls the area, and is responsible for cleaning up the mess. Someone else’s mess.

Tax dollars which could be used in more productive ways are being spent on investigating the issue. Additionally, the DOC will have to rent a large trash container for the cleanup and use a bucket loader. They will then have to pay landfill tipping fees or haul the waste to a recycler. And after the cleanup, there will likely be nails left behind, which is a bad situation as the area is a public fishing access. People park in the area where the debris now is to fish in the creek.

All this because someone didn’t want to pay a tipping fee or take the material to be recycled. It’s a shame.

And it is a shame that this isn’t an isolated incident. According to Terry Cook, a resource technician for the department of conservation, other acts have occurred in public areas. Over at the nearby Lime Kiln public access, someone set a pile of kindling on fire, as well as destroyed an adopt-a-highway sign and scrawled graffiti on a picnic table. And in Tipton Ford, someone destroyed barricades the department had installed.

One might say “Big deal. What do I care about what condition public fishing accesses are in? I don’t fish.” But everyone pays taxes and that money should be used for improving programs, not fixing senseless acts of vandalism and thoughtless acts of littering.