Neighbors in Rancho Alegre are cleaning up! Jim Wells County (JWC) Commissioners and residents are working to get their community clean as they continue to fight illegal dumping by enforcing the nuisance abatement procedures.
Neighborhood news reporter Melissa Trevino has been out in the Rancho Alegre neighborhoods talking about the continuous trash problem for months. Now, JWC Commissioner Precinct 1 said neighbors are finally working on cleaning up.
Retired truck driver Romero Ramon has lived off of Cardona Street for over 20 years. He was out mowing grass on a property that isn’t his. Something - he said - he does regularly.
"I'm doing this because we almost had an accident the other day. And this brush - here - was overlapping and you couldn't see nothing. So, I thought I'd just go ahead and cut them,” Ramon said.
After he retired he saw how trash and overgrown grass has become.
"It is a problem that we have here, but people don't want to go to the dump site. They just throw anywhere in the streets,” Ramon said. "You know people need to step it up. You know - clean it up."
Commissioner Precinct 1 George Aguilar agrees.
Aguilar took office in January and he took Neighborhood News Reporter Melissa Trevino on a ride along a few months ago to see how bad the problem was.
"You know we've made some progress on that,” Aguilar said.
He said they are still educating the public but neighbors have stepped up to clean. Before he took office the commissioners adopted nuisance abatement procedures which address conditions that negatively impacts public health and safety.
"You cannot keep 100 junk cars on your property, your grass three feet tall. You can't just have litter all over your yard. That's considered a public nuisance,” Aguilar said. "We warn about 10 of those residents; maybe about six of them have complied. There are still a few out there who are reluctant. For what reason - I do not know."
He said illegal dumping and nuisance abatement procedures go hand in hand.
To continue the battle, they’ve put up illegal dumping signs and more cameras in different parts of the county.
"It looks a lot better. It looks cleaner and we have about 96 percent of the people complying,” Aguilar said.
Commissioner Aguilar said its about keeping everything clean and safe.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page. Subscribe today!
