BALTIMORE — The trash continues to pile up in one Highlandtown neighborhood, and so are the frustrations from neighbors, landlords and even Department of Public Works employees.
WATCH: Concerns pile up over trash, illegal dumping
Monday wasn’t trash day for homes along Esther Place, but city workers were out cleaning up anyways after WMAR-2 News brought attention to DPW about illegal dumping concerns from a local landlord.
On Monday, a Solid Waste Bureau supervisor visited the site this morning to assess the situation and begin the illegal dumping cleanup.
No matter how many times the street is cleaned up, neighbors don’t have high hopes the street will stay that way.
“Before the day’s is over with, after they done picked it up, the next day it’s right back,” neighbor Norma Williams said. “I give it one day.”
Williams moved from out of state over the summer to be closer to family, but says, it’s been a horrible experience.
Dumping is a constant problem, she says, and overnight, she sees people who don’t live there dig through the trash, looking for items to sell.
“You pay to live somewhere safe and you’ve got to sit up here and smell the different smells, you constantly gotta sweep, rats. The baby can’t go outside and play because of the rats and some of the people. So, it’s just sad. This really is,” Williams said.
“It’s been an issue on this block for years but it’s recently got a lot worse. The dumping is happening weekly, mattresses, box springs. Just piles and piles of trash,” landlord Thomas Karle explained.
Karle submitted two 311 complaints at the beginning of November after he noticed tires and other large items had been dumped in the alleyway near a home he’s fixing up for rent.
Both requests were closed out on November 7, but a month later on December 4, Karle found nothing had moved.
“Just seems like it’s a joke. Like, they don’t really care. I mean what’s the point of having 311, and this elaborate work order reporting system if they don’t do anything actually about it?” he said.
DPW reports it was a miscommunication and says "the crew was sent to the wrong location" and the requests were closed out.
In one case, it was the wrong address. But the other, Karle points out, is the source of the dumping, Perrillo’s Auto Repair.
"They obviously change tires and instead of paying for them to dispose, they dump here in the alley behind the houses,” he said.
Last Thursday, he captured photos of workers taking furniture from inside the shop, and leaving it on a corner across the street.
Karle has also alerted DPW’s environmental police as well as Maryland Department of the Environment about concerns that the shop illegally dumping oil as well.
“Hopefully they’ll take it serious,” he said.
Unauthorized waste disposal by garages is continuing, city-wide problem.
WMAR-2 News was not able to get in touch with the listed owner of Perrillo’, but found the business forfeited its state license almost a decade ago even though it still appeared to be operating.
Karle’s latest complaints were taken care of sometime over the weekend. But by Monday morning, more bulk trash was in the alleyway, this time what looked like a gutted AC unit.
He says it’s an uphill battle, especially against what else the trash invites.
“You be scared to come out at night cause you scared you’re going to be jumped by a rat,” Williams said.
“I probably do 20-30 exterminations from mice and rats every week. Not from my houses, but because of the conditions around the houses,” he said. “Who wants to rent a house, when they pull up to rent a house and they see it looks like a small dumping ground?”
