Clothes, shoes, jackets, item donation bins in Elyria have been overflowing recently and residents aren't happy about it.
Tim Urbanic, a resident in Elyria, said, "It’s disgraceful to see a bunch of trash and stuff laying around, be it clothes or anything else.”
“I think it makes for a bad image,” said Jeff Smith, Assistant Manager at Sandy’s Furniture on Lake Avenue in Elyria.
There’s a clothing bin that sits right in front of the furniture store he manages. He said pick up is normally pretty good, but occasionally, the bin overflows and that makes him nervous.
Jeff Smith, Assistant Manager for Sandy’s Furniture, said, “When it overflows you just worry about somebody setting a fire or somebody getting in there…and we don’t want to have something that hurts us, ya know, in the looks cause he really tries to keep everything clean.”
That's why the city is exploring their options on what to do about the problem.
“We’re looking at where the bins are actually located,” said Mayor Holly Brinda. She continued, "And seeing if there are areas where the city of Elyria should say you can’t have one there.”
Brinda told me certain donation bins like those from the Salvation Army or Goodwill are not the problem; it's the ones from unknown non-profits that lack regulation.
“We do have some other organizations that don’t have a physical presence in the community and in some instances we don’t have contact information organizations.”
She told me not only are these bins a nuisance, but they're also a safety hazard.
“Children if they’re unattended can throw things in there, kids will be kids, we’ve had some instances where kids have actually crawled into the bins which is really a safety issue.”
Unsure still of what regulation will actually look like, the city’s mayor wanted to make it clear that the purpose is not to discourage folks from donating at all.
“It’s something that we do encourage our employees and our citizens to participate it, but we want to make sure that the way they do that is safe and we do think people need to know where that stuff is going."
Both North Ridgeville and Lorain have addressed this same issue in their cities and Brinda said she and city council are taking some tips from what they've done and figuring out how it can fit within the city of Elyria.
They hope to have something more concrete in place by the summer.
