A big mess in Barrie has become an eyesore to hundreds of people driving by it each day, and it’s a problem bylaw officers are trying to fix.
What started behind a busy Tim Hortons on Bayfield Drive as a place to drop off used clothing has turned into a trash pile full of everything from beer cans to books and bags of garbage.
It's filthy, disgusting. It's embarrassing,” says plaza employee Marilyn Nikkanen. “You know, it doesn't look good for the plaza”.
Nikkanen works at a hair salon just steps away from the growing garbage heap. She says this happened after clothing donation bins were set up here.
“We watched a truck full of garbage come and dump garbage there in the middle of the day,” she says. “I mean who has the audacity to do that?”
The general manager of Tim Hortons says the company that's responsible for these drop boxes didn't even ask permission before putting them on the property.
And according to the coffee shop manager and some other people who work in the area, the box owners haven't been back in a while. The mess just keeps on growing.
“Every day I see someone coming by, bringing trash here and dumping (it),” says Christina Lina, another plaza employee.
In the middle of this trash pile there's a tipped over donation box still stuffed with clothing. There's no company name or phone number on it, so it’s unclear where it came from.
“Our department would deal with something like that,” says acting manager of bylaw services with the city Tammy Banting.
In the City of Barrie, donation bins can only go up in front of businesses that accept donations, like Goodwill.
These random boxes are considered illegal.
“It does unfortunately become a responsibility of that property owner to then potentially pay to have that item removed,” says Banting.
In the case of this bin, and the mess around it, the property owner will be held responsible. But the people who work around here say the donation box owner should be the one cleaning it up.
