County, community working to clean up tires, trash

We have been working for the last couple of years to clean up Milam County. We have aggressively pursued cleanup litigation for those who violate the Health and Safety Code. We have issued felony indictments for several individuals involved in illegal dumping. We have removed vagrants from vacant business buildings.  We have installed surveillance cameras at many locations throughout the county, where illegal dumping is ongoing.  

Last Saturday we hosted a county-wide tire clean-up day, which was a major success.  All of this to make Milam County a cleaner, healthier place to live and work.

On Saturday, we received an estimated 10,000 tires from about 300 different individuals as a part of our efforts to get rid of unsightly and unsanitary old tires.  

The tires were dropped off at Precinct Three headquarters and will be taken to Reliable Tire in Burnett. The tires will be chopped up in small pieces and burned for fuel.  The remaining metal will be recycled for other uses. This is an expensive undertaking as it cost about $2.50 per automobile tire for disposal. However, we were able to get a grant from the Central Texas Council of Government for a large part of the cost. We plan to use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to cover the remaining costs.

We thank Commissioner Art Neal and his staff for their efforts to unload and reload the thousands of tires that were brought in.  

We thank the many volunteers who helped unload the tires including, Carson Offield and Gause Fire Chief Scott Koenig.  

Sheriff Clore and his staff helped with traffic control as the line of cars was over a mile long at one point.  

It was truly a community effort to get this important task done. 

We also got great TV coverage from Channel 25 news. If you have not seen the video and article, it is available at: https://www.kxxv.com/brazos/milam-co-ramps-up-efforts-to-combat-illegal-...

All of this helps to make sure that everyone in the County knows that we are going to have a clean County to live and work in.  

We thank everyone for working so hard to prevent illegal dumping and for those who brought in old tires. Together we are going to make Milam County a better place to live and work.