Richmond County Marshal’s Office works to clean up Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - On Monday, we got a rare look inside one of Augusta’s homelessness camps.

Tents, trash and more sparked a bigger conversation on how the city and the community could work together to keep the city clean year-round.

The Richmond County Marshal’s Office says they are in the process of launching its “Clean and Safe Augusta” campaign, allowing you to be a part of the process.

Part of the program will allow you to pinpoint exactly where these sites are.

“We have surveillance throughout the county, especially in high, high dumping areas to try to combat and catch these people that are dumping trash all over the city,” Deputy Andrew Justice with the marshal’s office.

But until then, the marshal’s office is keeping their boots on the ground to find blight and trash sites.

Lt. Stephen Billman said: “It’s a burden on the taxpayers of Richmond County. It costs taxpayer money to come down and clean this up.”

We rode alongside the marshal’s office on Thursday to see some of the areas that need cleaning.

One area we saw was an illegal dump near Old Savannah Road.

The marshal’s office says they see issues like it every day. It’s not just illegal dumping, but also homelessness camps and trash.

“They’re community issues, they’re not just government problems, they’re community issues,” said Chief Deputy Bill Probus with the Richmond County Marshal’s Office. “The effects are extreme for the community. I mean, when you have blighted an area, it affects property values, property taxes, all those things are very impactful. So, it’s extremely paramount to bring the community into the problem-solving process.”

They say the important thing to do is to report it if you see something.

“We really need the citizens to help us out and most of them do,” said Lieutenant Billman.

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