RICHMOND, Va. – The trash is scattered along Magnolia Road near Woodland Cemetery, despite very visible “No Dumping” signs.
“It’s ridiculous to just totally see the sign and say “I’m gonna dump anyway,” said Jerry Bagby.
He recently visited Woodland Cemetery and couldn't believe what he had to drive through to get there.
There were broken toilets, beer boxes, and huge pieces of wood littering the edge of the street -- next to empty paint buckets and furniture taking up part of the roadway.
All of it was within view of the cemetery gates, a place where tennis great Arthur Ashe is buried.
Woodland is the second largest African American cemetery in the area, surpassed only by Evergreen Cemetery.
City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson said this dumping ground is too close to her area. She said that in her 6th district, trash constantly piles up in alleyways, and city right of ways.
“Where people live and children play, and where rodents and all other things take place because of dumping,” she said.
Robertson is encouraging neighbors who want to fight against illegal dumping to do so by volunteering in monthly cleanups every third Saturday.
“The city provides the truck and two employees to work with the volunteers on that block to clean up and we will clean whatever blocks there are with volunteers to help do that,” she said.
