SUMTER, S.C. — Right now, Sumter County Public Works is focusing efforts to prevent break-ins at the local recycling centers. Volunteers tell us on a busy day, about 500 people can stop by to drop off their trash. After hours, the county says it’s dealing with break-ins: a safety concern that’s costing money.
Five days a week, residents can bring their trash to any of the county’s nine recycling centers to get rid of it for free.
“It's convenient,” resident Deborah Nelson explained. “You know, it’s very convenient.”
Nelson says she’s been coming to the center near her house for 20 years.
“The reason why I come here is because where I live is like between county and city, so I have to pay, and I’m only five minutes away,” Nelson said. “So I figure the five minutes, I can save money and just drop it off.”
According to the Public Works Department, the county's busiest centers, which are Cane Savannah, Bethel Church, Rainaire and Stamey Livestock, average between 12,800 – 16,000 vehicles per month.
The other centers (Alligator Branch, Spencer Road, Pinewood Road, Queen Chapel Road and Pleasant Grove) average between 3,800 – 8,500 visitors per month.
Resident William Tschorn says he visits about twice a week, and thinks having the centers placed throughout the county is helpful for people all over Sumter.
“Well sure!” Tshorn responded to a question asking if having that many centers is helpful. “Oh yeah, because people…you don’t live all in the same spot. You live in a variety of areas, which makes it easier for them.”
To ensure that these recycling centers are running safely and efficiently, Lt. Mike McCoy and his team are taking some new measures.
“It’s definitely a situation we’ve got to deal with,” McCoy detailed.
McCoy is a conservation officer for the county’s public works department and says since taking on the role in October 2022, he’s checking off a list of tasks. Next up on the list is trying to stop people from breaking into the recycling centers when they’re closed.
“We've got all of our recycling centers posted as far as illegal dumping and also under surveillance for video,” McCoy shared. “We’re trying to deter the behavior of people doing these types of habits because this is county property and this is maintained with county funds and also taxpayers’ funds and we want it to look nice and neat.”
McCoy says three of the nine centers in particular are the main targets, with people breaking in to steal scrap metal and batteries.
"I can't really pinpoint a reason why," McCoy said about the three centrally-located centers that are seeing increased break-ins. "They're kind of in the embedded area of the county; they're a little closer in."
McCoy says people cut holes in the fence nearly every week, which costs the county hundreds of dollars to replace each time.
“Number one, it’s illegal what they’re doing. That’s the main thing,” McCoy said about the break-ins. “And then another part of it is safety. Just an example: we have county employees that work these facilities and a lot of them, some of them actually are retirees and some of them actually don't get paid. Some of them are volunteers and we greatly appreciate that service. So we've had several incidents where they come here in the morning and unlock the gate to actually go to work and someone be exiting out of the actual building, so it’s a safety issue there as well. We don’t know what that person’s intentions is, so that’s a great concern for us as well.”
For Tschorn, preserving these spaces is key to keeping Sumter clean in an organized way that’s easy for residents.
“It's an area that's used by a lot of people,” Tshorn said about the centers. “And if you had free access, then there wouldn't be any reason really to have it.”
“We definitely want to invest in our county, we want people to come here and enjoy all the things that Sumter has to offer. We’ve got a lot of things here,” McCoy added about the importance of keeping the area clean. “We want people to come here to a clean environment. We want a lot of companies that’s invested here because of some of the things that we’re doing, and that’s investing in our county and our community being clean so they want to invest businesses here and generate revenue here.”
McCoy says having the centers is part of that effort. To help with that, the county says it’s posting more signs, setting up security cameras and increasing patrol of the area.
“The cameras have been a great access to us because we can actually even after hours when they close, if they get an activation, that comes to our devices and we can actually use that information to help prosecution if we catch them,” McCoy explained. “I think eventually it's going to get to the point once we get the word out, we’re probably not even going to have to use them.”