{"id":890837,"date":"2026-06-25T02:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890837\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T02:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:54:12","slug":"illegal-dumping-is-a-crime-and-the-city-is-fighting-back-jacksonville-blight-manager-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890837\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal dumping is a crime, and the city is fighting back, Jacksonville blight manager says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 If someone is dumping trash on your property, Jacksonville\u2019s top blight official says the first call you make should be to the police \u2014 because what\u2019s happening is a crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">News4JAX anchor Jenese Harris sat down with Albert J. Ferraro, the city\u2019s Blight Initiative Manager, one day after two brothers on Melba Street went public about a garbage battle with neighbors they say have been dumping on their land since January 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cIf somebody has anything dumped on their property, they should at least first reach out to the sheriff\u2019s office because a crime is being committed,\u201d Ferraro said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The Watson brothers filed a complaint in November 2025, but were still fined more than $7,000 through a nuisance lien. According to the brothers, the city told them there was no way to prove who was responsible \u2014 but the trash still had to be cleaned up. They say they hope the fine will be removed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">A city email from March 6 detailed just how serious the situation had become at the neighboring property on Chestnut Street. The email read in part, \u201cI have received more than five calls and emails about this location since 10:00 AM.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The email also noted that 620 Chestnut St. had been preparing for a site clearance contractor, but that process stalled after ownership changed, and the property was placed under an estate following an earlier citation issued in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">For anyone dealing with a similar situation, Ferraro outlined several steps residents can take:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 etvbxt font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\">\n<p><b>Call the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/b> Illegal dumping is a criminal offense.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\">\n<p><b>Call 630-CITY or use the myJax app<\/b> to report the issue to the city.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\">\n<p><b>Document what you see.<\/b> If someone is dumping, try to get the license plate number or the name of the company involved.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\">\n<p><b>Know your rights of way.<\/b> If the city spots trash in a public right of way, it will be picked up.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Ferraro also said the city is preparing to install surveillance cameras to catch illegal dumpers in the act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWe are going to be putting out the cameras \u2014 we purchased them \u2014 and we are going to start hopefully catching some of these people who are doing illegal dumping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">And the consequences for those caught could be severe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cIf somebody is illegally dumping on your property, then it needs to be handled as a crime,\u201d Ferraro said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The Watson brothers say they plan to fight their case.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 If someone is dumping trash on your property, Jacksonville\u2019s top blight official says the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":890838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,93906,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-890837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-blight","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116808493760483965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}