MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Baldwin County has a problem and it appears to be getting worse, according to Steve Shipman.

The issue: Trash and assorted discarded furniture and appliances illegally littering various areas of the county.

“This has become a very serious problem,” said Shipman, who works as a community service coordinator. “I hate seeing this kind of mess week after week.”

He’s not the only one upset about the problem.

Several of the people he transports to do community service have also  expressed that same sentiment, Shipman said during an interview with The Union-Recorder earlier this week.

“A lot of them are upset about it, too, because they’re the ones having to pick it up every week,” Shipman said. “We try hard to keep this county clean. It makes me sick to see all this trash and the other stuff we see because people are too sorry to go to the Dumpsters. They just don’t care where they throw it.”

Community service workers are persons who have been sentenced by a judge to a certain number of hours of community service resulting from some type of court case. Generally those workers, both men and women and all probationers, are assigned to a trash detail.

In Baldwin County, those assigned to such a work detail pick up trash on both Saturdays and Sundays.

“We’re one of the only counties that I know of that does it both days on the weekend,” Shipman said. “Most other counties just do it on Saturdays.”

Shipman, who is retired from the Georgia Probation and JAG offices, said recently they cleaned up dryers, sofas and chairs from various Dumpster sites and other areas.

The workers assigned to community service have to pick up the items and place them on the shoulder of the road until the county sends a truck by the pickup sites every Monday to pick up the items, along with orange-colored plastic bags of trash.

He said the problem seems to be never ending.

Workers clean up various sites around the county, but as soon as they do many of them get in the same shape they were in or worse.

“The problem doesn’t seem to be getting better; if anything, it seems like it’s getting worse,” Shipman said. “Something has got to be done about all the illegal dumping in this county.”

Recently, community service workers cleaned up an area just past the Kemper Building, which runs off Thomasville Road near Irwinton Road.

“Workers found five little dead puppies there,” Shipman said.

Some of the worse areas in the county, according to Shipman, are: Kings Road, Stembridge Road, Lake Laurel Road, Meriwether Road and CC Camp Road in Baldwin County.

Shipman said those roads seem to be the worse because they are heavily traveled.

He said he has talked with county officials about the problem. Nathan Arp, the county’s new code enforcement officer reportedly is working on acquiring cameras and installing them in certain areas that might cut down on some of the illegal dumping.

“We’ve got to do something about it because it’s getting out of hand quickly,” Shipman said.