Rural Franklin County road being used as a dump site

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - If you drive down Ninevah Road in Franklin County, you’ll come across a scenic spot where the road meets Little Benson Creek. It’s a peaceful spot, that someone is using as a landfill.

“When you find something like this, it’s really disheartening,” said Fiscal Court Magistrate Sherry Sebastian. She says she has found trash ranging from clothes, to old carpet, TVs, mattresses, and even a couch left behind.

“The first thing is disgust and horror because these are county neighborhoods where you have tremendous people that live in Franklin County and I feel like I have the best neighbors out here in the first district. Then you come around a bend at a beautiful spot in Franklin County and you see just litter.”

Sebastian says cleaning materials and other chemicals have also been dumped behind and left just inches from the creek. The stream eventually flows into the Kentucky River and ultimately becomes drinking water.

“For someone to pull up on the side of the road, and have it tarped up already and just pull that tarp out and everything in it just scatters to the four winds. There’s no reason for that.”

Sebastian says it would be a costly and time consuming move to put cameras up along the road. It’s why she is calling on neighbors in that area to be alert and report any illegal dumping they see.

“It’s incumbent on all of us who are neighbors in this community to speak with one another when they see something that looks odd.”

Franklin County does have a trash removal program that they pay for and is free for residents to use.

Sebastian says the Benson Valley Landfill also holds a drop-off day four times a year that is also free.

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