Rose Pond trashed with household garbage, beer cans and dirty sheets
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BLACKFOOT — Beer cans, trash and dirty sheets. People are tired of finding piles of garbage at Rose Pond.
“It’s just trash all around. I was appalled just because it’s been bad previous years but never this bad from what I’ve seen,” said Shyanne Thornsbury, a woman who lives in the area.
Thornsbury has been going to Rose Pond for several years and normally takes her dogs to the park once a week. The last time she was there, she said it was awful.
“Looked like someone had taken trash out of their car and just threw it everywhere. There was dog poop literally everywhere, someone had left a dirty sheet. It smelled pretty awful. I have picked up trash countless times. Usually when we go out, we try and pick up trash whenever we see it,” she said.
Bingham County Parks and Recreation Director Scott Reese explained there are more patrols at the park than usual to discourage some of the garbage and damage on the greenbelt at Rose Pond.
“We’ve seen more folks using it. Kind of started last year and we have had some vandalism. I had to have the bathroom windows replaced just last month. They were broken out. It’s really a popular place with the greenbelt. We have people using that every day walking their dogs. There has been more garbage. People just aren’t packing it out. It’s pretty discouraging,” said Reese.
Reese explained they have provided a dumpster at Rose Pond but the problem still remains that trash isn’t being thrown away properly. There is not a maintenance crew assigned to that specific park but rather a jail inmate work crew.
“In the past, we’ve had our work crew go out and help police that. We’ve had a couple of folks out on community service this year but the problem we’ve had with COVID – the courts have not been moving real fast and we only have one inmate who qualifies for the program. They keep him busy keeping the lawns mowed on the county’s property around the courthouse and other buildings. We just don’t have the manpower that we’ve had in the past,” said Reese.
Reese says in the past there have been church groups and volunteers that have come out to Rose Pond to clean up the trash. He is trying to coordinate a JustServe event, which is a volunteer opportunity, and hopes the community will step in and help clean up the park with him.
“I really think that as a community, at least for Rose (Pond), we need to do better and we need to figure out a solution,” said Thornsbury.
