Roadside dumping law enforced Forest ranger cites Down East men, on the trail of two more

There’s no place like home, or even the local transfer station, when it comes to stashing your old stuff. But dumping your junk in the woods is never an option, as a few men Down East discovered this past weekend.

A Machias man and a Marshfield resident learned in separate incidents Sunday that leaving their household garbage and goods on the side of a rural road was not a good thing.

Ranger Jeff Currier of the Maine Forest Service said Monday that he is hot on the trail of two more Washington County men who live in Perry and Lubec for the same offense.

They also have discarded their stuff in casual fashion for all to see and smell rather than take it to the transfer station.

Working alongside Ranger Courtney Hammond, Currier discovered bags of household garbage, plus televisions, old toilets and a couch near a vehicle turnout along the Hadley Lake Road near the Marshfield and East Machias town line.

After going door to door to ask residents if they knew who was responsible for the illegal dumping, two men were summoned.

Sanford Nason, 53, of Machias was charged with littering in excess of 15 pounds for allegedly dumping a couch on the side of the road. According to the rangers, Nason was seen by a local resident hauling the couch on his truck late Saturday afternoon.

Albert Laflamme, 23, of Marshfield was also charged with littering in excess of 15 pounds. He allegedly dumped bags of household trash, a television and two toilets at the same site.

Both men are scheduled for a Dec. 8 arraignment in Machias District Court. If convicted, they face a maximum $500 fine plus cleanup costs.

Nason already has gone back and picked up the couch, Currier said.

“I can’t give legal advice,” Currier said. “But I tell people that if it were me, I would go back and clean up the trash well before my court date. A judge won’t like hearing that the trash is still out there.”

Currier spent part of Monday trying to track down the Perry man who allegedly dumped old steaks and other bad food from a freezer on someone else’s property. Then he went to issue a summons to the Lubec man who allegedly dumped his trash in Edmunds Township.

Currier, who was named the ranger supervisor in the Maine Forest Service’s office in Jonesboro on Aug. 1, has a personal distaste for people who can’t get their old stuff to the local transfer station. He is working to identify who is responsible for a fifth recent case of illegal dumping.

“This is rubber-gloves, disgusting work,” he said of picking through people’s trash for clues left behind in public view. “But it’s important work.”

Currier surmises that incidents like this are on the upswing, perhaps tied to the still-fragile economy. There are modest charges for doing the right thing, disposing of household bulk and goods at the local transfer station, the Machias Bay Area Transfer Station in Marshfield in the case of the two men who already have been summoned for their violations.

In asking area residents on Sunday if they had witnessed the acts of illegal dumping, Currier gained the support of volunteers willing to pick up after those who can’t clean up after themselves.

He wants to schedule a date later this month to help clean up the local – illegal – trash heap.

“Many people offered their time and their vehicles for a cleanup,” Currier said. “No one wants this type of activity in their neighborhood.”