Tons of trash removed from West Melbourne property after almost a year

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Updated  September 19, 2024 8:19pm EDT
FOX 35 Orlando
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Tons of trash removed from West Melbourne property

Huge piles of garbage were finally removed from a West Melbourne neighborhood after they'd been living next to trash for almost a year.

WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. - Huge piles of garbage were finally removed from a West Melbourne neighborhood after they'd been living next to trash for almost a year. 

FOX 35 first showed you the problem near Dairy Road a few weeks ago. The piles had been growing for months, and no one was cleaning it up. 

That changed on Thursday. 

The junk company told FOX 35’s Esther Bower that, in total, they would end up removing nearly three tons of garbage from the yard plus an RV also full of trash in the nearby woods. 

The sounds of a crane hauling away piles and piles of unidentifiable items were music to Kay Lewis’s ears after she lived next to piles of trash for months and months.

"Today, they brought a big dumpster which is probably going to take every bit of that to get it done," said the homeowner. 

Kay’s right. After a half hour of hauling, the dumpster was already filled to the brim. Two others were brought in soon after. 

"I’m former military, so my obsessive compulsivity comes in. I’m like, we’ve got to get this cleaned up. I can’t stand this. We got to get this done," said Jason Phalin, who owns Easy Day Junk Removal. 

Jason says the property owner called his business last week to clean up the mess.

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"That’s good," said Kay. "We’re moving in the right direction."

It hasn’t been easy for neighbors. They made several attempts to contact West Melbourne Code Enforcement for months but said, they got nowhere. 

FOX 35 tried to help because they were terrified of hurricane season sending the trash into their home. 

FOX 35 talked to the property owner who said he hadn’t been getting letters from the city on the issue until recently.

"I think they let it go too long. You know, if they had addressed it sooner," said Kay. 

Neighbors think the city should update code enforcement procedures, so trash doesn't get out of hand like this again.

The property owner says he has a code enforcement hearing on Thursday with the city. He lives out of state and is asking them if he can install a fence so no more people can illegally dump on his property. 

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