County changes litter ordinance

EPHRATA — The Grant County commissioners approved changes to the litter code increasing penalties and adding a reward for people reporting litter.

The changes increase the minimum penalty for littering on public or private property from a minimum of $10 to a minimum of $250, allows the county to use the garbage as evidence and offers a $250 reward for people reporting illegal dumping, which leads to a conviction.

“Basically what this does is it gives (the ordinance) a little more teeth, makes it a little more painful,” Commissioner Cindy Carter said.

The change came after Ed Stubington, a county resident, complained about garbage being dumped on nearby properties. He told the commissioners he was tired of seeing it happen on neighbors’ land.

“I’m hoping in the passing of this new litter law … it will clear up the spirit in which the law was always intended and that’s pretty much the only reason for the change,” he said. “I do appreciate now that there is a reward system also in there to kind of spur on more activity.”

When Commissioner Carolann Swartz asked about why Stubington pursued these changes, he replied he wasn’t getting any results with the ordinance. The law didn’t allow the police to use names written on the garbage as evidence.

“I decided to firm it up a little bit and give it a little more direction, so that way there wouldn’t be any gray areas of having someone be made responsible for a rather minutia type of civil disobedience that shouldn’t be going on anyway,” he said.

Swartz was concerned the reward would allow people to create an industry of taking other people’s trash and dumping it to collect the reward, she said.

“I thought of that also,” Stubington said. “The fact is that there are all sorts of different ways that, I suppose, that someone could be incriminated by something,” he said. “That’s what you have the officers for, or the people looking into it to use some kind of judgment because nothing is black and white.”

Commissioner Richard Stevens pointed out the reward is only given after the report leads to a conviction.

Stubington added people should be aware of where their trash is, so if it blows into someone else’s property, they should be responsible.

“They are supposed to take care of their domicile, their area, their property. It’s not supposed to be going out along the hills and the highways,” he said.

Swartz also asked if there would be signs put up to advertise the penalty.

Stubington said the county could put up signs.

“But people mostly know you don’t litter,” he said. “At what point do you have to put so many signs up that it becomes a litter problem.”