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Time to tackle illegal tire dumpers
By Bill Hankins
The Paris News
Published March 29, 2009
Lamar County Commis-sioner Lonnie Layton is urging an all-out war against those who dump old tires on the county roadways.
“Almost every day, I am having to send our guys out there to pick up tires dumped illegally,” Layton said this past week. “Once we picked up 400 tires one day, then had to go out and pick up 50 more dumped in the same spot the next day.”
Layton, the Precinct 2 commissioner, said the problem is increasing.
“I would like to see residents of the county watching for people hauling trailers full of tires on county roads,” he said. “They need to call the constable or sheriff’s office if they see that, because most likely those tires will be dumped alongside the road.”
Layton said the situation has worsened because there are several people going through old tire bins at tire dealers and picking out the better tires to sell, then tossing the tires they can’t sell wherever they can.
“The don’t have the equipment or license to take care of those tires in the right way,” Layton said. “There are people who do have the machinery, such as C&S Environmental Tire Salvage in Lamar County, and they have the license to dispose of tires properly. It is the unlicensed, out-for-profit people who raid the tire bins.”
Layton said C&S Environmental Tire Salvage has machines to shred old tires for use or disposal properly.
“There is one piece of private property in Lamar County that has 10,000 to 15,000 tires dumped there, and frequently tires are burned, causing even worse problems to the environment,” Layton said.
“Sometimes the tire dumpers don’t even bother to leave the tires in a safe spot,” Layton said. “They just dump them in the middle of the road.”
Layton wants area residents to watch out for people hauling tires.
“The more eyes watching, the easier it will be to catch the culprits,” he said. “I will catch somebody. If we get them one time, I think it will stop their illegal dumping.”
Commissioner Jackie Wheeler said people should also be watchful for people with large loads of trash or old refrigerators or washers and dryers.
“We are constantly having to pick up those items from county roads, and if someone sees a big load of trash headed down a county road, it is most likely it will end up dumped there somewhere,” Wheeler said.
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