Resident urges Vienna to address litter along Grand Central creek near Applebee’s

Ethel Harris, a Vienna resident, told the Vienna City Council on March 13 that trash accumulating along the creek by Applebee’s and Grand Central at Conroe makes the area appear “like the garbage dump.”

Harris said she has fielded complaints from people who sit at Applebee’s and look out at the creek and see trash on the bank and in the water. “People's going up through their throwing their trash out. It's going down into the water, but the bank is loaded,” she said during the public forum.

Harris asked the council to add durable signage and enforce fines, saying, “If you would, put a sign up. Anyone caught for any trash will be fined or put jail.” She also told the council she would provide photos documenting the situation but said she did not know how to operate the meeting’s device to display them.

The remarks came during the public forum portion of the council’s regular session. Council members did not take a formal vote or issue an immediate directive on the request during the segment recorded in the transcript.

The complaint concerns a stretch of the creek by Applebee’s and the Grand Central/Conroe crossing near Ninth Street; Harris said she drove to the site earlier the same day to inspect it. The transcript does not record follow-up staff comments, a scheduled cleanup plan, or whether the city currently maintains regular trash enforcement in that location.

The council meeting also included other public comments and ceremonial recognitions earlier in the session, but the trash complaint was raised during public forum. No enforcement action, ordinance amendment, or timeline was recorded in the available transcript.