(Forrest City, AR) We can all agree dealing with solid waste disposal is a tough job.

But in Forrest City, Arkansas the problem isn’t “what’s” being thrown away… but “where” it’s thrown.

Mose Metcalf is on the front line of a very smelly situation,

“A concerned citizen saw someone dumping a deer carcass in the dumpster.”

Metcalf, Superintendent of Forrest City’s Solid Waste Department, says recently a deer carcass was left in a dumpster close to where children play and people excercise,

“You can imagine if it was 90 to 100 degrees, what an animal carcass would smell like, on top of trash in a dumpster in a public place.”

Metcalf says this is an “extreme” example of the illegal dumping in Forrest City.

He says business owners and operators are paying the price.

There are about four hundred commercial dumpsters in Forrest City, which are emptied anywhere from one to three times a week.

Businesses are billed for the solid waste pick-up, but the problem is not everything found in the dumpsters belongs there.

Andy Lawerence is a salesman at the Sears Outlet store on North Washington Street.

Just the other day he got a “nose full” of what Mose Metcalf is talking about,

“There was a bad odor. And I looked over in there and there happened to be a pile of fish in there. It looked like somebody had been fishing the day before and actually dumped the stuff off in there that they didn’t keep.”

Suspicions are the people dumping illegally are contractors or people from outside  St. Francis County.

Andy Lawerence says he doesn’t care who’s responsible…he just wants it stopped,

“It’s not a free pick-up so we do have to pay for it. And for them to do that is actually taking advantage of what we’re paying for.”

Forrest City has just invested 200-thousand dollars in new vehicles to collect solid waste.
The Mayor says he’s going to look into establishing an ordinace to control the illegal use of the commercial dumpsters.

That means violators could get a citation or a fine.  

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