Glass recycling receptacles have moved to Brookhaven’s Public Safety Building at 1793 Briarwood Road while Briarwood Park undergoes renovations.
Part of the city’s master plan, the $4.6 million project includes stormwater improvements to bring the park into compliance with the current city code, adding three bioswales and two detention ponds. The city will resurface the parking lot and add lighting, a dumpster pad, and EV chargers at Briarwood Park.
Briarwood’s recreation center is closed until March 2024, but the tennis courts and playground remain accessible.
Briarwood is the last project paid for by $40 million in parks bonds that paid for improvements across the city.
Prior to Briarwood closing for renovations, residents had long complained about overfull dumpsters in the parking lot. Brookhaven parks volunteer Steve Peters noted dumpsters were overflowing with trash and furniture that attracts insects and rodents, and a lack of attention by DeKalb County Sanitation, the party responsible for removing trash and recycling at the park.
DeKalb County said the dumpster is typically serviced three times a week, but Briarwood had trash spilling out on the grounds for weeks before renovations began.
DeKalb takes no responsibility for trash outside of the dumpsters.
“Our standard operating procedure is for the field collection team to service only the contents of our containers. Any debris or items around the containers are not serviced by our teams and is the city’s responsibility,” DeKalb County Chief Communications Officer Quinn Hudson said.
According to Hudson, garbage containers “were not serviced due to noncompliance (i.e., wooden pallets, shopping carts, and furniture are not approved for placement in garbage containers); and our inability to service the recycling container due to the area being blocked by vehicles and there not being enough clearance for us to service the container.”
City Manager Christian Sigman said prior illegal dumping cases had been tracked by Brookhaven Police Department, and citations have been issued.
A DeKalb County crew supervisor notified Brookhaven Parks and Recreation that the containers could not be serviced due to non-compliance and a blocked container.
Future issues can be communicated to DeKalb County at (404) 294-2900 or CommercialService@dekalbcountyga.gov.
