LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Make the clean-up dumpster more accessible

I applaud our citizens, Ozark County, Missouri Department of Transportation and WCA (for donating the dumpster) for their county-wide clean-up efforts during the month of April (“Devoted Ozark Countians step up during ‘Clean Up Trash’ month,” Ozark County Times, April 11). My only suggestion is that the county place the dumpster in an area that is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, such as behind Town & Country Supermarket or perhaps at one end of the Ozark County Sheriff Department’s parking lot.
The hours of the recycling center are quite restrictive as many of the clean-up efforts take place after work hours and on weekends. Surely a safe, more easily accessible location could be found for one month that would provide even greater support for the effort to clean up Ozark County.

 Karen Jeziorski
Isabella

The commissioners respond:
Trash dumpster must be supervised
Thank you, Karen, for your interest in cleaning up the county. If more people were like you, we are sure this county would be a cleaner place!
To address your comment about having a dumpster in a more accessible place, we would very much like to make it more accessible to the public. However, we have found that a dumpster that is unsupervised will soon be filled with tires, hazardous material and other illegal trash.
The dumpster installed this month at the Ozark County Recycling Center is to be used for roadside trash pickup only. We also remind volunteers that those picking up trash along state highways may leave the filled yellow trash bags provided by MoDOT along the state highway for MoDOT crews to pick up. (However, this only applies to state highways, not to county roads.)
The commission thanks you for your interest but will continue to keep the dumpster for roadside trash at the recycling center, where hours are from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Ozark County Commissioners:
John Turner, presiding
Greg Donley, west
Gary Collins, east