Litter bugs, take note

The Knox County Litter Crew has been removing litter from county roadways for decades, but now they are targeting illegal signs. Signs for businesses placed on the rights-of-way or utility poles and stop signs are out of control. You won’t be cited for signs about garage sales or birthday parties but remember to remove them promptly after the event. Political signs are allowed during campaign season but must be removed five days after the election.

Another new effort is an Environmental Crimes Enforcement Team. With the support of Knox County Commissioner Carson Daily, Engineering and Public Works now has the resources in place to cite violators for environmental crimes such as litter. When litter, dumping and illegal signs are reported, they will be referred to the Environmental Crimes Investigator Lt. Thomas Walker.

Since January, 76 companies have been warned about illegal signs, and one company has been cited. Our enforcement team is bringing multiple test cases before the court for prosecution to establish precedents for effectively prosecuting litter bugs.

If your name is found on litter, dumps or illegal signs, you may get a call from Lt. Walker. First offenders with minor amounts of material littered will likely receive a warning and an educational packet about the litter law. Repeat offenders may find themselves in court or even jail depending on the severity of their litter crime.

Litter, dumping and illegal signs make our community look bad and bring down property values. You can report litter, dumping or illegal signs on county roads here. If you witness roadside dumping or littering in progress, report it like any other crime to the police.

In other projects around the county, Andes Road Bridge in the Schaad Road Project saw some significant progress this week. Six 45-ton and 110-foot-long beams were hoisted up on two abutments. This was a two-day process that required a giant crane and careful coordination between several companies.

Getting these beams in puts the bridge at the halfway mark to completion. The next step is to put in the bridge deck. Blalock is waiting on approval from the railroad to start this process as this bridge is going across an active railroad, and any work on it requires stopping the trains.

Our paving crew dug up a messy section of Lester Road and repaved it in District 3.

The traffic control team put in a new all-way stop at the intersection of Millertown Pike and Harris Road in District 1 on Monday.

Here’s some photos of work around the county: