Albany city commissioner stumbles upon massive illegal dump

ALBANY – While visiting neighborhoods in Ward I during his November campaign for re-election, Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard took a shortcut down an alley off Clark Avenue. What he saw was an area littered with mattresses, couches and other old furniture as well as bags of household garbage.

The veteran commissioner has been a long-time advocate for cleaning up the city and frequently investigates reports of illegal dumping. But this scene in east Albany was something that shocked even Howard.

“I have not seen anything like this since the Flood of ‘94,” he said. “There’s 19 mattresses out there. And nine sofas and love seats. It’s egregious and (shows) a lack of concern about the community.”

The area where the unnamed alley sits is located in a sparsely populated mobile home development on about 14 acres located between School Street and Mock Road. Since the discovery a few weeks ago, Howard said, the city’s Public Works Department has pledged to clean up the site where the mass of discarded mattresses and other junk is piled around the area where a burned-out mobile home sits.

With other recent development in the area, Howard said it would be a good site for some commercial development and perhaps some duplex residential units to create a mixed-use project.

“This would make a nice strip mall,” he said. “You could have some mom and pop shops. The land is there (available) in east Albany. The only thing that hurts is the poverty and the mess.”

Lee County businessman Darrell Ealum, who owns the property, said he had it cleaned up about six months prior to Howard’s discovery of the piles of junk along the alley.

“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “It’s just people coming in and dumping. I think the problem there (is) it’s so secluded.

“We caught a couple of people who were doing it. We went through the mail and turned it in.”

Ealum’s said his plans are to turn the area into a commercial development zone in the future. Only about 12 mobile homes in the area are inhabited currently.

“I bought it to turn it into commercial,” Ealum said. “Ultimately, it’s all going to be commercial.”

Individuals who have old mattresses and furniture they want to get rid of have options that are free of cost, said Ed Lemon, a Keep Albany-Dougherty board member.

Those items can be dumped at no cost at the Dougherty County Landfill or the Meredyth Recycling Center on Meredyth Drive.

“If they’re not doing that, it’s going to fall on the community,” Lemon said. “There are places where you can dump it. We need to be hitting them in the pocketbook.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinStaff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]