Pick Up Pickens
By Alex Saitta
July 2, 2021
You have all seen how much litter has accumulated on the roads of Pickens County the past year. Likely you are also starting to see people/ crews/ groups on the roads picking it up. The county council/ government is addressing our litter problems in many ways.
Going after those who throw trash on the ground. If you see someone doing it, report them to 898-5500.
We’ve hired two litter control officers that will start shortly. Their responsibilities will likely include investigating illegal dumping sites and bags of trash thrown out on the roads, fielding litter complaints, working with recycle centers attendants to stop non-county residents from using our county centers, people pulling in with un-tarped loads and coordinating all the tools we have for litter pickup.
The county is again picking up litter on the roads. The Roads and Bridges department has 3 litter crew workers. Solid waste has 2 employees and 2 part-timers that pick up litter on road ways near the recycle centers (mostly due to trash blowing out of pickup trucks and out of vehicles).
The county council started a program where non-profit groups are invited to pick up litter on roads as well. The county pays them $250 per mile, 28 groups like the Liberty Boy Scouts, Easley High School band boosters and 5 Point Church have signed up and are in the process of cleaning up nearly 100 miles of Pickens County roads. See picture of the Knights of Columbus and their recent haul of 50 bags along 3 miles.
This is a great way for non-revenue sports teams at local high schools to “pick-up” some extra cash. See inset for more and call 898-2485, google: Pick Up Pickens or email: afowlers@co.pickens.sc.us.
A couple of weeks ago I saw the Pickens County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) with a small crew on the road picking up litter, inquired about it and was told it was a citizen(s) doing community service as part of his sentence dished out by the magistrate. Kudos to both the county magistrate and PCSO for directing resources toward the problem.
Whenever someone enters the legal system, they incur costs to the taxpayers, so they do have a debt to society at that point. Hours of community service picking up litter is an option judges have at their disposal when sentencing. The county needs to create a better process for the implementation of such a community service requirement moving the offender from court to supervision to the road picking up litter.
The Pickens County jail has yet to restart the prison litter crews, but it is not their fault. While there are about 230 inmates in the jail, only sentenced prisoners can be used for work detail. Typically 50 to 70 inmates were serving sentences at the jail and could be used for work detail. During the 12 months of Covid, court scheduling was way down so only 16 inmates are on work detail and those inmates are used at the jail to cook, clean, do laundry, and help with upkeep of the grounds. The courts are slowly getting back to a full schedule (running 80% to 100% now). As inmate levels rise, we hope to see the prison litter crews on the road again soon.
We also requested the sheriff’s office re-instate the female litter crews (all hands on deck) and my fingers are crossed on that request.
Finally, anyone sentenced for littering or illegal dumping is likely prosecuted under state law 16-11-700. In addition to a fine (and possible jail time), sentencing includes hours of litter pick-up (community service). So if Mr. XYZ litters or Mr. ABC illegally dumps a bag of trash on the side of the road and is caught, likely we’ll see them both out on the road helping to pick up litter as well.
