CINCINNATI — Residents of the Avon Fields Apartments in North Avondale said they regularly walk out their front doors and find the property buried in trash left behind by non-residents.
"It's terrible," said Melinda George, a nine-year resident of the apartment complex. "I come out sometimes in the morning with a bag. I try to get the top parts where I won't see it and everybody else won't see it, and I pick it up."
The trash litters the surrounding wooded areas and the parking lot for the residents of the complex. However, the amount of trash left by others was more than one person could handle.
Brian Hart, the Avon Fields Apartments property owner, said he hired crews of up to five people who spend hours picking up the insurmountable heaps of garbage.
"It's a problem that we're constantly dealing with," Hart said. "We have folks that dump on our properties and throw litter down. We spend thousands of dollars a month picking up trash left behind by other people."
Residents have called and complained to the city about the illegal dumping on the property. The city said they often receive complaints about illegal dumping on the property of apartment complexes, and they "always recommend to the owners to have a dumping prevention program that will include frequent visits to the rental property, and camera systems around dumpsters."
"It's frustrating," Hart said. "I think that if we can get some cooperation with the city and focus on the litterer instead of the victims of littering that perhaps we could come up with a better solution."
