DRESDEN, Maine — A Midcoast Maine community is dealing with quite the mess these days.
Dresden town leaders say nearly every day, they come across a new pile of trash that someone left by the side of a road.
Allan Moeller, a town selectman, is fed up. He’s tired of some people illegally dumping trash in his hometown of Dresden.
“It’s the whole inside of a house,” Moeller said.
He says what’s sad is most of this trash is recyclable and would cost next to nothing to take to the nearby transfer station.
The town, at its own expense, just had to remove a whole pile of roofing shingles and other debris that someone had dumped.
“You’re talking at least $1,000 minimum to clean all this up,” Moeller said.
Moeller plans on doing something about it. He and others will set up motion sensor cameras hoping to catch people in the act.
“They’re infrared,” Moeller said. “They take pictures at night. They come up. If they’re dumping you catch them red handed.”
He’s even gone through the piles of rubbish hoping to match a name to the mess. He says that’s likely why whoever dumped one recent pile of debris set it on fire.
“This had been out here since I was here Friday,” Moeller said.
If Moeller catches someone, he says he’ll levy the maximum $500 fine and then some.
“Pay the fine and also make them clean it up,” Moeller said.