October 15, 2004
Friday

As the nights get longer, the dumpers are at it again, putting people in danger due to their own stupidity, greed and neglect. They have dumped deer remains near the start of the Salvage trail at 1.5 mile Revilla Road. For the most part we can be thankful that we don't have brown bears on the island, but some have been shot here so maybe we do. One concern if they are here, is that they like to protect their food supply, more so than black bears. The dumpers have provided a scrap food source by the trailhead for an unsuspecting hiker to take their chances to find out if we do or don't. Makes for an interesting discussion on liability if someone gets hurt there.

One thing the dumpers have also done is to turn a pothole into a cesspool. It now stinks and who knows what it harbors for bacteria and other unhealthy critters.

Going further out the road, the tire and pallet burners have been busy again, and again you have to be careful there. I took a picture of the ashes of the pallets showing the number of nails left by the thoughtless litter bugs! It is interesting that I talked with a lady that has a three year old. She took him out to enjoy the great outdoors and ended up picking up a gallon or so of nails left by the pallet burners. She stated she used to burn pallets. She is young enough that maybe she can convince the young people in the community that it is stupid to burn tires, pallets, cars and all the other stuff that gets torched for fun around here. We get our revenge soon though, they will someday be property owners and help pay the increased taxes to pay for the cleanup! (Actually they already are, even if they are renting through higher rents due to higher taxes passed on the them!)

I, and other concerned individuals in the community, will be working on this problem through the winter to require the dumpers and burners to donate funds directly from their pockets to the State and Borough, and maybe to the Federal government. In the meantime, be alert to your environment and where you drive, also where your children are playing, and your pets are so they don't end up in some of these messes.


Jerry Cegelske
Code enforcement - Ketchikan Gateway Borough
E-mail: jerry.cegelske@borough.ketchikan.ak.us
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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