Posted on: Friday, May 31, 2002

'Ewa Beach trash standoff settled

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

'EWA BEACH — Sometimes when you want the trash taken out, you just have to do it yourself.

Such is the case with 'Ewa Beach residents fed up with trash and debris left along Fort Weaver Road for pickup after a state "Adopt A Highway" cleanup three weeks ago.

Bulky items such as tires and car batteries had been left on the side of Fort Weaver Road since the May 10 volunteer cleanup while the state and city disputed who was responsible for taking away the bulky items. The state, which normally does pickups after such cleanups, said it would pick up only the bags of collected trash.

Since then, other people had added a refrigerator and other large items to the pile, which grew with each passing week. Frustration grew among residents until Garry and Pam Lee Smith decided to do it themselves.

"We don't want our community becoming famous for its trash," Pam Lee Smith said.

So the Smiths hauled most of the trash — about 10 tires, a mattress and refrigerator — in their small pickup truck to the city refuse convenience center in 'Ewa yesterday morning.

The Smiths said they took away two truckloads of trash and were on their way back to take away a third when they saw a state dump truck hauling away the remainder.

"I can't understand if two people can do this why it takes government three weeks to do it," Smith said. "On the other hand, maybe we have to take responsibility for ourselves, because 'Ewa Beach can't always rely on government to help us out here."

'Ewa Beach Ohana member Jeff Alexander, whose group has conducted the highway cleanups for the past 12 years, hopes the state picks up the trash collected during the next work day.

"We're going back out in a week or two," Alexander said. "We, the residents, shouldn't be lugging this stuff to the dump, because its the state's responsibility."

But state Department of Transportation engineer Charles Lee said the state's Adopt-A-Highway program deals only with litter pickup.

"We have to take people and heavy trucks assigned to highway repair work and other important duties (if we're going) to pick up the bulky items," Lee said.

Lee said the state's concern is that people see the trash collected from cleanups and use that as an excuse to dump their personal items alongside.

To address the general trash problem in 'Ewa, the federal "Weed and Seed" anti-drug program is considering a major community cleanup this fall.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.