WINTON – The twice-per-week closure of all but one of Hertford County’s Solid Waste disposal sites has apparently led to illegal dumping at those locations as well as nearby roads.

That issue was addressed here Monday at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Hertford County Board of Commissioners. There, County Manager Loria Williams stated that illegal dumping had increased since a cost-saving decision was made to close all Solid Waste disposal sites in the county on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the exception of the old landfill location on Mt. Moriah Road.

That new policy went into effect on July 1.

“As a result of us closing some of the sites two days per week, Mr. (Mike) Bradley (the county’s Public Works Director) shared some photos with me where there is some illegal dumping taking place,” Williams told the Commissioners at Monday’s meeting. “There are bags of trash left outside the gate (of the closed trash convenience sites) as well as up and down the roadway near those sites as of late.

“Now, in talking to Mr. Bradley about that, he assures me that this is illegal dumping,” Williams continued. “We can go through that trash, even though it’s something we prefer not to do, to find information, mail containing addresses, to see if we can determine who that trash belongs to. We have been known to use the court system in these cases because this is illegal dumping. We’re seeing an uptick in illegal dumping.”

As far as roadside trash, Williams said that is under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Back in June, Williams and the Commissioners reminded county citizens that if they had to dump trash on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the old landfill site is open Monday through Saturday. All disposal sites will remain open on Saturdays.

By closing all other sites on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Williams noted that would save the county $67,000 annually.

In a related matter at Monday’s meeting, Commissioner John Horton asked Williams to follow up with a concerned citizen who spoke to the board several months ago about trash littering the roadside of Willoughby Road.

Horton said the board had promised to follow-up on the complaint lodged by that citizen, but apparently had failed to do so as the woman chose to write a Letter to the Editor in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald where she noted no action had yet been taken.

Williams informed Horton that she would check to see if the complaint was followed up.

Commissioner Curtis Freeman said the area of Willoughby Road that Horton mentioned appeared to have been recently cleared of trash, but the amount of litter is slowly building once again.