Trash problems near church

To the Editor,

On Saturday, Dec. 15, while doing my daily walk, I passed Saint John’s Baptist Church to discover a heart breaking find on the church bulletin board.

For sometime now, there have been situations in the area that should not be occuring.

The County Sheriff and City Police Chief are aware of this but there seems to be some confusion about city and county jurisdictions, even though the 911 mapping and addressing office is co-located with the city/county dispatch.

Almost on any given morning or evening the section of road on CR 173/Jenkins Blvd from I-10 to McGee Road is like a race track with folks running late going to work or in a break neck hurry to get home in the evenings, but rarely is law enforcement patroling this road.

The roadway from McGee to the county line looks like a garbage dump, where either trash is blowing out of the back of open pickup trucks or trash is deliberately being thrown out on the sides of the road.

Nowhere from the Washington County line to McGee Road is there a sign indicating speeds higher than 40 mph. Just three blocks from the stop sign on CR 173/Jenkins Blvd north is one of those signs. Hello, don’t you think that sign should be placed a couple of miles back from the stop sign?

If it were not for inmates doing trash pickup along the roads, our city and county would look like a bunch of animals lived here.

For the folks living in the area, thank you for caring enough about your property appearance to pick up what others have trashed.

To the church members and pastor of Saint John’s Baptist Church, may God bless you and please forgive those who have sinned against you.

To our law enforcement officials, I know that you are overtasked and under budgeted but there are other laws being violated in our communities other than drug abusers.

To parents of young people who might have placed such garbage on the church bulletin board, you might want to have a talk with your loved ones, you never know when someone might be near taking pictures and getting tag numbers. I have a feeling that our court system won’t be so tolerant of such actions.

Jim Helms

Washington County