The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department not only seems intent to protect and serve, it also bags and hauls -- as in trash and debris. Lots of it.

Following up the removal last month of 8,640 pounds of trash, including 270 old tires and the remnants of a clandestine meth lab, from a creek along Zane Lane and a utility right-of-way off Laura Brodie Road near Batesburg-Leesville, the department apparently was just getting started.

Two more recent cleanup efforts, from the department's code enforcement officers and resident deputies, removed approximately seven tons (or 14,000 pounds) of trash and debris from a county trailer park and subdivision, the department reported.

The department, in partnership with the Cayce-West Columbia Lions Club, Lexington County Solid Waste Management Division, and Palmetto Pride, removed 5.8 tons of trash, including 78 old tires, during a major clean-up effort at Parkwood Mobile Home Park in West Columbia.

Sheriff James Metts said East Lexington Resident Deputy David Nieves coordinated the clean-up effort at the mobile home park. Officers and citizens removed trash from the bed of a creek and removed trash from vacant lots at the mobile home park.

Nieves is working with new owners of the mobile home park to improve conditions there in order to provide residents with a cleaner and safer environment, Metts said. 

And this past Saturday, the department -- along with Keep the Midlands Beautiful and the Lexington County Solid Waste Management Division -- removed more than one ton of yard debris from outside homes on Ambling Circle and other streets in the Whitehall II subdivision near Irmo.

Metts said Irmo Resident Deputy Dan Rusinyak coordinated the clean-up effort with assistance from residents in the subdivision. This was the first major clean-up effort that was conducted in the neighborhood, the sheriff said.

"Deputies and citizens focused on removing yard debris from homes that were occupied by senior citizens and persons with physical disabilities who had limited ability to trim overgrown trees and shrubs outside their homes," Metts explained. "Overgrown trees and shrubs make it difficult for law enforcement officers to detect whether criminal activity is occurring at homes."