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DENVER -- People who live near the interchange off I-225 and S. Tamarac Pkwy. in southeast Denver are fed up with the mess.
Contact7 first caught wind of the issue while following a conversation on the Nextdoor website. A neighbor expressed concern about the area around the highway ramps at Tamarac.
"The bottom of the hill looks terrible," he wrote.
"Can we have a neighborhood intervention," another woman asked.
Contact7 talked with one woman who lives near the interchange.
"There are weeds just growing everywhere," Vicki Gemme told Contac7. "Dirt, glass, broken concrete and weeds."
Contact7 went to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to get some answers.
"We do what we can with the funding that we have to make sure that everything looks good," said CDOT spokesperson Stacia Sellers.
She also brought up how CDOT handles mowing operations to help get rid of the high weeds.
"We want the public to understand that we only have enough in the budget for two mowing operations a year," she said.
As for the trash, Sellers says CDOT teams up with area jails to have inmates come and clean up areas along the highways.
"We have let our maintenance leadership know about this area (I-225 & Tamarac). They’re going to go ahead and send crews out there to do a double check," she said.
Gemme thinks the city can do more.
"There is probably money in the budget that’s not being utilized correctly," she said.
Contact7 asked Gemme if she'd be willing to pay more in taxes to keep areas cleaner.
"I'd be okay with that," she said.
