The Montezuma County commissioners have discarded the idea of adopting an ordinance regulating rubbish in the county.
At their Monday workshop, they said the county doesn’t have the money it would take to administer or enforce a program to regulate trash.
“It would not be cheap and it would have to be a whole department,” Planning Director Don Haley said. He also said such a program could prompt a great deal of litigation.
Commissioner Kent Lindsay agreed, saying, “You go down any county road and how do you determine if that’s trash or if that’s an investment.”
In a recent online survey offered by the county, 58 percent of the respondents said they did not support adopting such an ordinance. In answer to another survey question, 59 percent said junk cars should not be classified as rubbish.
The survey was not scientifically valid, and Commission Chair Jim Candelaria noted that a number of people have asked county officials to rein in blight.
But the commissioners said offering additional fee-free days at the landfill might be a better way to encourage people to clean up their properties.
“There are certain spots where we have trash accumulation, no doubt about that,” said Lindsay, “but maybe if we entice this to a certain degree we’ll get rid of it.”
Haley concurred. “I think the tipping-fee assistance and that kind of deal is a good course of action,” he said. “The word’s gotten out, don’t just dump your trash out there. Trash is trash.”
