Officials encourage Dougherty residents too resolve to clean up in 2026

“Doggone it! Here’s a truck that just dropped a bag of litter on Mock Road.”

That was Dougherty County Commissioner Anthony Jones’ exclamation as he was speaking recently with an Albany Herald reporter about litter. The commissioner, who was on the phone with the reporter at the time, saw the litter fall off the truck as he drove on the road.

Jones said he chased down the driver, who was unaware that the bag of garbage had fallen off the truck. The driver returned to pick it up.

The commissioner said he is making addressing litter in 2026 a personal goal.

“I’m going to say Happy New Year to all the litter bugs,” he said. “I would like to send out a plea to any and everyone who is littering up our streets, our communities, our neighborhoods, I’d like you to shift your focus to cleaning up Dougherty County.”

A few days earlier Albany City Commissioners Jon Howard and Willie Weaver invited the Herald on an inspection of an area in the 100 block of Cordele Road. There, what appeared to be a small storm drain area was littered with plastic laundry detergent and bleach bottles, as well as pillows, bedding, grocery store carts, tires as well as glass bottles.

At the former Harvey’s store nearby, an abandoned trash collector’s door was open and people have been adding garbage and tires to the mix in the trailer.

“This was here when Harvey’s was here, and it has been going on for 10 years or more,” Howard said.

Last year the city and county revamped the Keep Albany-Dougerty Beautiful board, and Howard, as chair, said he intends to be involved.

‘I’m going to be a boots on the ground chairman,” he said.

The veteran city commissioner also launched a “Keep East Albany Peachy Clean” campaign in late 2025.

For his part, Jones said he intends to work with Howard and others to not only encourage the public to do its part but to work to make sure laws are enforced when asking nicely is not enough.

“We’re experiencing a lot of illegal dumping,” Jones said. “If you’re one of these people who are dumping illegally, I’d like to appeal to you to cease and desist and use your trash cans, the landfill and any other means to clean up our community.”

County residents are allowed to take up to 2,600 pounds of garbage per day to the county landfill, he said. 

For those who don’t get the message, law enforcement can make people pay attention, the commissioner said. 

One issue he has noticed is people with unsecured garbage, such as the truck he stopped that day. That also includes commercial garbage services whose trucks often blow trash out as they’re leaving the county facility.

“If DCP (Dougherty County Police) catches your company, you will be cited,” he said. “Dougherty County has zero tolerance for littering. We’ve got to enforce it, but I’d rather do it through the spirit of cooperation.”