Trash piles trouble Jackson residents

JACKSON, Tenn. — Some Jackson residents said their trash has not been picked up in months. Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist said it is a citywide problem they are trying to fix.

Piles of trash stacked high clutter streets on the east side of Jackson. “I think they think this is the slum area because that’s what it looks like with all this trash,” Shirley Kizer said.

Kizer lives across the street from a pile of trash she said has been there three months and continues to grow. “We have little kids playing over here,” she said. “You don’t know what’s going to come up out of this trash.”

Gist said the city and Waste Management are responsible for picking up the trash and are working to correct the problem. “We’re trying to do everything we can now to go with some overtime each day and on the weekends to try to get us back into decent shape,” he said.

The city said they have six trucks that go around and pick up trash. Gist said two of those trucks are currently broken. “The parts have been ordered,” Gist said. “We can’t possibly repair the trucks until the parts get here.”

Gist said one of the trucks has been down for several weeks but the other should be a simple fix.

Kizer said she’s called the city multiple times to complain and wants the trash out of her neighborhood. “I feel like they don’t care about this area,” Kizer said.

Gist said they hope to have the city in better shape within the next week or 10 days. He said they are also getting help from Waste Management.