Neighbors upset over trash pile under a walking bridge along St. Joseph River

SOUTH BEND, Ind.---  Trash piling up under a walking bridge over the St. Joseph River, is becoming a problem for those who live in South Bend’s Howard Park neighborhood.

Doug Turnock lives near the pedestrian bridge, connected to the East Bank Trail. Turnock said he’s tired of the trash being left under and around the bridge.

“That’s my beef, I do not appreciate looking at it,” said Turnock.

He said there’s a growing garbage problem along the St. Joseph River and it has gotten worse in the past year.

“This past year was really terrible, by this particular one person,” said Turnock. "As you can see it’s pretty messy.”

Turnock said he’s tried to get the city and South Bend Police to fix the problem, but even when they looked into it, the littering continued.

ABC57 reached out to the city’s Code Enforcement Department to see what can be done about littering and they came out to inspect the area today.

In a statement Code Enforcement Director, Tracy Skibins, said:

“Code enforcement is going to look into the situation and we appreciate someone bringing it to our attention. Because of the location of the debris and the difficulties getting to it, we’re trying to find out exactly who owns the property. It’s going to take us some time to investigate, but it will be addressed." 

Up the river near Indiana University’s South Bend campus, a business owner said the city had to put up fences, because people living under the bridge nearby where they were littering and being disruptive to customers.