COAL TOWNSHIP - Driving along township streets during the past few weeks, the chief of police concluded residential sections of Coal Township had never been cleaner during his time at the department.
Gone were piles of household trash, tires and unwanted furniture carelessly left outside people's homes - a result, Chief William Carpenter said, of the township's new ticketing system to fine residents for violations of township nuisance ordinances.
But there's a catch.
Carpenter was concerned that some residents would take the easy way out. Instead of paying to dispose of trash or recycle at no cost, they would simply dump it all in the mountains.
It appears those concerns have proven true.
"This is a slap in the face to the volunteers who worked to clean up and haul away trash that was dumped here before," Carpenter said Tuesday while standing along Bear Valley Road between the Second and Third patches of Coal Township, referencing a series of cleanups held in that area over the past several years.
Fed up and disgusted, the chief said he would push a judge to impose, not only a maximum fine, but also a jail sentence for anyone found guilty of illegal dumping.
"We need to send the message that we're not going to tolerate this anymore," he said, adding that he has already compiled a list of suspects' names.
Piles and piles
Carpenter was bent down, hunched over a pile of trash, sifting through some magazines among a slew of trash tossed roadside. He then stood, crossed the road, and pointed out over the berm to garbage piles.
Used diapers, a couch, cushions and pieces of living room furniture, kitchen chairs, children's books and toys, hollowed-out speaker boxes, countless soda bottles and plastic waste - all of it and more tossed in the woods.
"This is only what we can see," he said, figuring that much more trash was dumped in the coal strippings.
Never mind it would have been just as easy for them to take much of the plastic and glass materials, televisions and other electronics, even brush - yes, brush, that someone took the time to stuff into plastic bags, compounding the littering offense - to the township recycling center nearby on Venn Access Road.
The recycling center accepts many types of refuse at no cost. It would even have been a shorter drive.
'Not the answer'
Illegal dumping is hardly new to the coal region. A majority of the trash on Bear Valley Road, though, appears a result of increased enforcement by the township, Carpenter said.
In March, a new program was initiated to allow township police and other officials to ticket violators $25 for each offense of a nuisance ordinance, such as piling up garbage on one's property.
Ticketing was enacted because it's a more streamlined process than citing a violator and taking the case to district court.
And if money is tight, Carpenter said they'd work with the violators. "Running out the mountain is not the answer," he said.
Fines and jail
The penalties are much harsher under the state crimes code.
Someone found guilty of scattering rubbish would face fines between $50 and $300, plus court costs and costs to clean up their trash. The law also allows for up to 90 days in jail for the summary offense, and Carpenter said he'd push for a jail term to be given to violators.
He called upon the public to pitch in and help nab those illegally disposing of garbage. He asked that anyone who notices a vehicle filled up with junk and headed to the mountains to write down a registration number or even vehicle description and share it with police.
"This is an embarrassment to the coal region," he said of the trash dumped along Bear Valley Road. "It really is."