ROANOKE, Va. – The city of Roanoke is working to address illegal dumping in the city and encouraging people to take pride in where they live.
"We have approximately 20 illegal dumping sites spread across the city," said Jeffrey Powell, manager of Roanoke's Solid Waste Management division.
Powell said that's not an exorbitant number of sites, but his department is cracking down on the problem.
"Inspectors have almost doubled the number of inspections they conducted last year," Powell said. "We're going to be at an all-time high of visiting sites and notifications of folks."
Members of the Solid Waste Management team are using cameras to catch violators and also prosecuting offenders. He said the team is working to educate people on the proper way to dispose of trash and other unwanted items so team members don't have to cite them.
"We need to re-establish our relationships with our neighbors and work together as a community and have an understanding that we're all in this together," Powell said.
That outreach will include a big cleanup event in Northwest Roanoke in July to get people involved with the beautification efforts.
"Our intent is to just get people to work together to take some accountability and ownership of the neighborhoods," Powell said.