FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The City of Fayetteville is enforcing a new clean-up plan on bike trails. However, part of the problem is a lot of the clutter is on private property.
Maxwell Hunter has lived in Fayetteville for 20 years. He frequents the city’s bike trails often.
“You avoid traffic. Obviously environmentally beneficial and I find it mentally helpful too,” said Hunter.
He enjoys biking so much he even works at Phat Tire Bike Shop but lately taking the trails has been a bumpy ride for bikers.
“We have a lot of flat tires come in,” said Hunter. “Because of the trail debris, broken bottles. Any debris you name it.”
However, since the city created a new clean-up plan, he has seen a massive improvement.
“It looks better and it feels safer,” said Hunter.
The city began its new clean-up plan back in April after receiving more complaints than usual about trash on the trail. However, the city says most of the areas that needed cleaning are homeless camps that have been set up on private property.
According to parks operation director Byron Humphry, a new clean-up plan had to be made and this is where the permission form comes into play.
“The private property owner can give the police permission to ask the unsanctioned camp to leave and then we can go in with a contractor to clean it up,” said Humphry.
The problem wasn’t that it was just an eye sore, but the type of debris in the area was harmful to the environment.
“Most of our trail system follows a creek way so a lot of these unsanctioned camps have trash and debris right on the edge of the creek,” said Humphry.
According to Humphry, the city has received a lot of positive feedback with this new effort. He says the city will continue to work on keeping trash off the trail system.
