Pond fills with more than water
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on April 15, 2004 2:01 PM
When it rains, it pours.
Trash, that is.
Residents of one development in Goldsboro say they have problems with trash floating into their neighborhood every time it rains.
Ava and Don Callahan live on Stephens Street in the Willow Run condominium development and say they've been plagued by the city's trash problem for the three years they've lived in the development.
News-Argus/Barbara Arntsen
Debris from streets makes its way into this pond in Willow Run Subdivision with each rain.
Besides having complaints about not getting their street swept routinely or the storm gutters cleaned out, the Callahans say their biggest problem is when it rains.
"Whenever it rains, the trash comes through that drain pipe," said Mrs. Callahan, pointing to a pipe at the edge of her property. "That pipe comes out of a ... ditch on Harris Street."
The pipe empties into a little stream that feeds a pond beside Willow Run.
Sometimes, she said, there's so much trash floating through the ditch that she and her husband fill up a wheelbarrow several times with the floating debris.
"One time we got a dead dog floating in the pond," she said.
The couple have lived in Wayne County since 1967, most of that time in Sheridan Forest. After retiring, they spent a short time in Florida before returning to Goldsboro.
They bought their home in Willow Run three years ago, thinking that they wouldn't have to bother with yard work because the development company keeps up the yards. "But we spend so much time cleaning out the trash in the pond," she said.
Mrs. Callahan said that when she called the city about the problem, the General Services Department said it would clean the ditch.
"But it's a reoccurring problem," she said. "I'd like them to do something about prevention, and about the trash in the city."
"I think the city needs to do some more things in the city before it thinks about annexing," Mrs. Callahan added.
Joseph Sawyer, city general services director, said there was a "debris rake" in the ditch on Best Street designed to catch trash. "That supposedly gets most of the trash out, but some gets through," he said. "We clean it out periodically."
Sawyer said that Stephens Court, a main road in Willow Run, was scheduled to be swept by the city Wednesday afternoon, and he would have his crew check the storm drains on the street.
The Callahans have been concerned about trash and the city's appearance for several years.
Before health problems stopped them, the couple said, they tried to keep Stoney Creek Parkway, which runs by Willow Run subdivision, clean by picking up trash along the road almost every week.