Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home Gleaners volunteers are sick and tired – flat-out angry, really, of people dumping their trash in their parking lot.
While they appreciate donations they can sell in their thrift store at 3031 Main St., which helps pay for utilities, they can’t sell the broken-down old desks and furniture some folks dump on them in the middle of the night or even, sometimes, during the day. The junk is useless, and it causes their organization a lot of problems, they say.
“We’re not a garbage dump,” said volunteer Marla Blanchard. “Why would they give us a child’s coat with no zipper?”
Coordinator Lisa Pye said the problem has been ongoing.
“The last few years we’ve been having dumping,” she said. “We tell them ‘no.’ They come back and dump them. The piles get bigger each time I show up in the morning.”
She’s angrily demanding that people knock it off.
“Somebody dumped their garbage here – a bag of garbage!” she said.
Inside the store, the Gleaners sell a variety of items to help pay monthly expenses. With those paid, the Gleaners are able to operate a service that provides food to low-income families, who go out and glean farms for the membership.
By law, they cannot take beds, mattresses and other furniture items unless they are fumigated, Pye said.
Federal requirements prohibit it because of the possibility of spreading bed bugs.
They have to turn them away even if they are in good shape, she said.
“A ‘nice’ down (mattress) looks like it was used as a dog bed,” Blanchard said, noting that she’s not even taking into consideration the chance of cockroaches and bed bugs.
But old beds and furniture aren’t their only problems.
Two stoves and a fryer showed up one night, Pye said. The stoves are broken. The fryer is useless and now filled with water.
Among the refuse are desks and furniture, all of it warped and broken down, with drawers that won’t open or close properly.
They’ve also had sinks, toilets and a refrigerator dumped there. Pretty much everything is falling apart and unusable. It cannot be sold in the store.
“These are the donations we get,” Blanchard said. “It’s so sad. I can’t imagine what kind of person would do this.”
Pye said she can take the wheels from some of the items and repurpose them – maybe. A set of truck wheels might sell in the store, but they were dumped too.
They don’t know if some of the items are broken, Pye said. They were dumped in the middle of the night, and no one talked to a member.
A grill is sitting out front with an unidentified metal frame. Inside, it is missing heat shields, which if it works all, would cost money to make it useful.
Anyone is welcome to stop by and pick it up, Pye said – or anything else in the parking lot.
“It costs us money to get rid of it,” she said. Instead of paying the bills, the Gleaners has to transport it and pay the dump to take it.
Right now, Pye said, “we cannot afford to dump.”
“Every time you get it cleared out, it’s filled up again overnight,” Blanchard said.
All of that said, Pye said, the Gleaners does need useful items that can be sold in the store to help keep the lights on.
“We do need a washer and drier,” Blanchard said, something members can use on their wash day each week – also to clean donated clothes. Often, those are dirty.
Pye and Blanchard ask that donors contact the store during its operational hours, so that they can ask questions about donations and reject those they cannot use – the trash and the items they are not allowed to sell or do not sell.
For that matter, the Gleaners could use donations to help get rid of the trash and junk, Blanchard said.
Direct donations of cash or in-kind help is tax-deductible just like any other donation.
Sgt. Jason Ogden of the Sweet Home Police Department said that dumping in the Gleaners parking lot can result in different charges, including littering and theft of services. Both are misdemeanors.
The problem with the dumping is that the Gleaners have to deal with it,” Ogden said. “They shouldn’t have to deal with it.”
Finding trash in the parking lot, the police would take a report on the crime, and the department has taken reports in the past, he said.
Anyone seeing activity in the parking lot in the middle of the night should contact police immediately at (541) 367-5181, Ogden said.
To donate or otherwise contact the Gleaners, call (541) 367-3190.