Citizens volunteer and take
roadside trash to the dump

The city and state each said it
was the other's job to do it

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Pam Lee Smith got tired of waiting for the city and state to decide who was going to pick up a mound of trash that sat on the side of Fort Weaver Road for almost three weeks.

She said the pile of discarded car parts, appliances and furniture tempted people to dump even more rubbish -- like old carpeting and a mattress.

"We don't see the sense in setting something on the side of the road and letting it draw more trash," she said.

So, rather than "wait around for the city and state to moan and complain," Smith and her husband, Garry, took two pickup truck loads of trash to the dump yesterday morning.

The pile had been left behind after state crews picked up the bagged trash in a May 10 Adopt-a-Highway cleanup. The state wanted the city Refuse Division to take away the bulky trash, but the city said it was the state's responsibility.

Smith said it didn't matter. It took the couple about an hour to take the trash away, she said.

"It was manageable. It wasn't something that required a big city truck or a state truck to pick it up," she said.

Smith, a member of the Ewa Beach Neighborhood Board and vision team, said she hoped it sent a message to the community. Although residents were upset that no one would come take the rubbish away, "we'd like people in the community to know they can do stuff for themselves. They don't need to wait for someone else to do it," she said.

Abel Waiolama, state highway maintenance supervisor for the Leeward side, was surprised to hear that the trash was gone.

He said state crews were scheduled to pick it up yesterday afternoon, but he was happy to hear someone else had taken care of it.

"We look at the objective and make sure everything is picked up. I don't care who the agency is," Waiolama said.