The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents surveillance cameras have been installed at the site of the Purple Cliffs camp and patrols will increase in the area in response to regular illegal dumping at the site on La Posta Road (County Road 213).
According to a news release from the county, ClearView Cleanup, the contractor hired to clean up the site after the county’s decision to close down the encampment, informed the Sheriff’s Office that residents are “regularly illegally dumping trash, furniture and other items at the site.”
“The company estimates the ongoing cost to reclean areas already cleared of debris at several hundred dollars per incident,” the release said.
The county hired ClearView Cleanup to dispose of waste left by the houseless population after eviction. However, county spokesman Ted Holteen said that the recent dumping incidents appear to have been perpetrated by residents who are using the existing cleanup efforts as an opportunity to dispose of items that they would otherwise have to pay to get rid of at a landfill or transfer station.
Unlike in Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 Thanksgiving anthem “Alice's Restaurant Massacree,” there is no envelope with the name of the responsible party at the bottom of the pile of garbage. Instead, the costs of the extra cleanup are being passed on to the taxpayers.
ClearView Cleanup has a contract with the county to clean up the site with a cost ceiling of $374,241, which is drawn from the Joint Sales Tax Fund shared by the county and the city of Durango.
The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for more details about the surveillance or increased patrols.
According to the release, littering carries a mandatory fine of $20 to $500 upon a first conviction.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
