McKeesport: Fines increased to help stop illegal dumping

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko is fed up with illegal dumping.

He’s offering financial incentives to city employees who catch people and companies dumping in empty lots, at blighted properties, on dead end streets or roads that don’t see a lot of vehicular or foot traffic, in wooded areas, on hillsides, into the rivers and other places.

City council also got involved during Wednesday’s meeting by setting the minimum fine for “throwing or depositing litter” at $2,500 and the maximum fine at $10,000.

“It ticks me off when people just drop a McDonald’s bag right in the middle of the road in our Renzie Park,” Cherepko said. “We’re not going to hit someone $2,500 for that.”

“That’s a different ordinance, this is the dumping,” Solicitor Jason Elash said.

“People are bringing truckloads and truckloads,” the mayor said. “When we talk about dumping, we’re talking about dumpsters upon dumpsters that you can fill up. We have a lot of dead ends in the city where they just back in and unload.”

Elash said council’s move to increase fines and enforce the dumping ordinance by taking those caught illegally dumping to magisterial district court shows McKeesport is “taking a hard-nosed approach” to confronting the problem.

“As the mayor can comment, we’ve had a big increase in dumping and trash being dumped and left around the city,” Elash said. “We’re making it a little less lucrative for the people to do that.”

The mayor was the only person to offer testimony during a public hearing held prior to the regular meeting.

“Dumping has been a serious issue here in the City of McKeesport for a while now and it’s getting out of hand,” Cherepko said. 

He later added that “We’ve had someone in our city place a Craigslist ad telling people to come dump behind their house, and it wasn’t her property.”

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