Garbage At South EP Shopping Center Upsets Neighbors

by ABC-7 Reporter/Anchor Ken Molestina

EL PASO, Texas — An unsightly mess at a South El Paso shopping center has residents and business managers upset.

It’s dirty, smelly and piled up high. There are bottles and oil cans, and everything is so different, it’s hard to tell where the trash is coming from. So who’s job is it to clean it up?

“This is gross for everyone. It gives off a bad image especially when they blame it on a restaurant,” said Maria Guzman. The trash is near her restaurant’s receptacle area.

People think she is to blame, but it isn’t her trash. Her trash is locked away.

Also nearby is an apartment complex and an auto supply store. Both have their own trash dumpsters and say this mess doesn’t belong to them.

Shopping center site manager Raul Ballesteros is speaking on behalf of the property owners. He said the trash is on a side of the property that doesn’t belong to them, but rather belongs to the city.

But ABC-7 called city officials and it turns out the site manager was wrong. Not only is it on his property, but this isn’t the first time they have had the same trash issue.

Since he has a previous violation within 12 months, the city will clean up the property and the owner will be billed for that clean-up.

In the end, city officials said if there is unclaimed trash in the area it always lies in the hands of whoever owns the trash site property.