COAL GROVE — For 24-hours this past weekend residents of the Village of Coal Grove disposed of unwanted trash and debris during Fall Cleanup Days.

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday many people in Coal Grove — who provided required documents proving residency — could dump anything except tires and refrigerants, such as Freon in two Dumpsters at the 500 block of Pike Street.

Coal Grove Police Chief Eric Spurlock said 55 truckloads of trash and debris were dumped over the two-day period, a number that is slightly down from last year.

“This is the third year of having a police presence at the Dumpsters,” Spurlock said. “People dumped a lot of brush and a lot of just regular trash.”

Instances of nonresidents attempting to dump trash or prohibited items have been eliminated since the institution of police at the Dumpsters.

“As long as we are there checking people’s utility bills and driver’s licenses no one even tries to dump trash who is not allowed,” Spurlock said. “The police being there keeps them from trying to throw away the tires and Freon, too.”

As for why the number of overall loads decreased from last year, Spurlock cites the length of the event being a problem.

“The event used to last two weeks,” he said. “Then it went down to one week and now down to just two days. If it lasted longer obviously we would have more people take advantage of it.”

Coal Grove utility clerk Debbie Fields said tires and refrigerants are prohibited because Rumpke charges a fee to dispose of both, in accordance with regulations enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The amount of trash being collected contributed to the length of the event going from two weeks to two days, Fields said.

“Rumpke actually told us we had to decrease the amount of waste collected during our cleanup days,” she said. “They were having trouble handling the amount of trash accumulated over that two-week period.”