Westside South Bend neighborhood fed up with illegal dumping on abandoned property

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- An abandoned property on South Bend’s Westside is causing problems for neighbors in the area.

Trash is piling up from illegal dumpers and those who live nearby said the county has done nothing about it for the last two months.

“It is a nuisance. It’s just an eyesore.”

Joyce Eaglebarger lives right next door to the abandoned property.  She called it both unsafe and a nuisance.  According to Eaglebarger, illegal dumping has been happening for the last four years on the site off Lexington Avenue. She said it all started getting worse about two months ago when the house burnt down.

“Now it’s worse because they see this mess and they go, we can dump here! There are bags of insulation, now they’re dropping off carpet, tires, beer cans, pop cans, just garbage everywhere.”

Eaglebarger said people are coming late at night to dump whatever it is they want to get rid of and that’s causing problems for on her own property just a few feet away.

“There are mice in our shed because this is drawing all this garbage and trash.”

Eaglebarger said she’s called code enforcement at least a dozen times about the property. She said they’ve come out to inspect the property a few times and condemned it but that nothing has been done since.

“It’s frustrating you can’t get the county to do anything about it. Condemn it, tear it down, clean it, don’t wait this long.”

Back in May, St. Joseph County Commissioners announced plans to demolish problem properties in the county.  ABC57 reached out to the county building department to find out if there are any plans to demolish the property on Lexington Avenue but have not yet heard back from them.