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DENTON – Following years of concerns from residents on the state of certain properties in the county, the Caroline County Commissioners are moving in the direction of adopting two legislative bills to address the collecting and open-air burning of unsightly garbage. One of the bills read at the April 14 Commissioners meeting also establishes a protocol for the Commissioners to enact an open air burn ban in the event of a drought.
Bill 2026-004 essentially creates a new chapter in the county code: Property Maintenance – Rubbish and Garbage, which would prohibit “the accumulation of rubbish and garbage on exterior property and premises,” said County Attorney Stewart Barroll. It defines garbage as “animal or vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food” and rubbish as “combustible and non‑combustible waste materials…including paper, rags, cartons, boxes, wood products, rubber, leather, tin cans, metals, glass, crockery and other similar materials…treated, painted, stained, pressure‑treated, or chemically treated lumber and wood products.” The definition originally included waste like yard trimmings and branches, but Commission President Travis Breeding said at the April 7 meeting that he’d like to exclude that. So, “natural vegetative materials, including tree branches, brush, leaves, or yard trimmings” will still be permitted. It also makes exceptions for agricultural materials and equipment.
The bill authorizes the county’s Department of Planning and Codes to notify violators, as well as administer certain fines or resort to judicial enforcement if the violation is not corrected. “What this is designed to do is to prevent the accumulation of rubbish and garbage…to the point where it piles up into a large, unsightly, and probably unhealthy mess, which at some point, when someone's not looking, gets ignited to get rid of it,” Barroll said.
Bill 2026-005 will be considered by the Commissioners in tandem with Bill 2026-004. This bill also creates a new chapter in the county code, this time prohibiting “the open air burning of garbage or rubbish” and authorizing “the County Commissioners to adopt an open air burning ban in any part of the county or throughout the county as a whole during specific drought related conditions, based upon the recommendation of the Caroline County Director of Emergency Services.” If passed, the bill allows for the right of entry to extinguish a fire that was started in violation of a burn ban, and allows for fines or judicial action against violators if necessary.
Both bills will be up for a second reading and public hearing at next week’s Commissioners meeting on April 21. If the bills move through the current legislative calendar with no issues and are passed, they will go into effect June 27, 2026.
