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Dumping, other problems come into full focus
Photo
One of Youngstown’s illegal-dumping cameras shows a pickup and a car traveling on the East Side. The truck is carrying wood that the camera later would show being dumped on the side of the street.
YOUNGSTOWN
Nine cameras installed throughout the city to catch those improperly dumping garbage and debris on vacant land also have found other illegal activities.
One camera on the city’s South Side took pictures of a man stealing a city manhole cover, something that Thomas Mirante, superintendent of the city’s wastewater department, said has become a major problem recently.
“We’ve replaced 200 manhole covers in the past few months,” he said Thursday.
The covers, made of steel or cast iron and weighing about 50 to 60 pounds, cost about $100 each to replace.
Other cameras show the theft of scrap metal.
The cameras also are addressing their primary function: taking pictures of dozens of illegal dumpings all over the city, said Jennifer Jones, program coordinator for the city’s litter control and recycling division. The division is overseeing the illegal dumping camera program.
Three people have received citations for illegal dumping with several others about to be charged, she said at a Thursday press conference at city hall to provide an update about the cameras.
Also, the person who took the manhole cover will be charged shortly with theft, city Prosecutor Jay Macejko said.
The city installed the cameras last month as a way to help curb illegal dumping and prosecute those who do it, she said.
“The reputation [of Youngstown] is it’s a dumping ground,” said Councilman DeMaine Kitchen, D-2nd, who is resigning Monday to serve as the mayor’s administrative assistant. “The reputation is already out there that [people] can dump without any punishment. Those days are coming to an end.”
Council agreed to purchase the cameras because illegal dumping has “been a problem for a number of years, but it’s gotten progressively worse,” Kitchen said.
The city purchased the nine cameras for $55,000 from Q-Star Technology of Torrance, Calif. The cameras are placed at undisclosed locations known to have illegal dumping problems, Jones said.
The cameras can read a license plate 300 feet away, regardless of the time of day.
The cameras take still photos and work on a system that detects motion.
The pictures from the cameras are downloaded twice a week, Jones said. Each camera has about 700 to 800 pictures, and it takes about three to four hours to review the pictures, she said.