St. Paul officials apologized for long delays in the cleanup of a trash heap at 10th and Wacouta streets, a situation that came to a head Sunday when fed-up residents stuffed the garbage into bags and dumped them outside City Hall in protest.

The state of Minnesota is responsible for the parcel, which had become a littered eyesore because of homeless people camping there.

Even so, the city should have nudged the process along in tandem with state officials to get it resolved quickly, according to Ricardo Cervantes, the city director of safety and inspections.

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‘Moral courage’ training, already planned for St. Paul officers before George Floyd death, takes on more urgency “It should not have taken this long,” Cervantes said. In cases like this, “We typically get the state out there within a week or so.”

The trash pile became a cause célèbre over the weekend as Erich Mische, a city resident, rallied a small group of adults and kids to get most of the junk cleared off the parcel with several hours of work on Saturday and Sunday.

Mische and a companion then hauled away the garbage in plastic bags, which they deposited outside City Hall’s Fourth Street entry as a befuddled security guard looked on.

“They sent a very clear message,” Cervantes said. “It’s dramatic, and they made their point.”

Mayor Chris Coleman in a series of tweets also apologized while praising Mische and the other volunteers.

“The garbage piled up in downtown Saint Paul was unacceptable. This does not meet our standards,” he tweeted. “I thank the vols who spent their Sunday cleaning up the garbage, including Erich Mische, @BlazeGlory.”

Mische said Monday he doesn’t want thanks or an apology but said residents near the trash site do deserve an apology.

“What they owe me and every other taxpayer is to simply do their jobs,” he said.

Mische remains disgusted with this affair, recalling how he found more than a dozen syringes at the trash site along with a long knife. He had police remove the items.

“It would not be an understatement to call it a hazardous waste site,” he said.

On Sunday he also came upon an open drain pipe that he thinks presents a hazard to kids, and he texted Mayor Chris Coleman and his City Council member, Chris Tolbert, about it.

He never got a response. Last he checked on Monday, the pipe was still there, and the site remained an eyesore overall.

Cervantes said state officials were slated to be on the site today to assess any further cleanup and fence repair.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation had intended to handle the full cleanup by today, according to Coleman, but the volunteers beat the agency to the punch over the weekend.

“We can all do better,” the mayor said.

The city hadn’t taken on the cleanup of its own volition because of jurisdictional issues, Cervantes added.

“We want to be mindful of that, and if there’s a cost involved we don’t want to be setting any precedent since the responsibility for those areas lies with the state,” he said.

Cervantes said he had sent emails to the state, per standard procedure, and “we (had) expected that it would get taken care of.”

However, city-state communication broke down, he added.

“As a result of this, we (now) have the correct individual handling the complaint for the state,” Cervantes said. “That is the good that came out of this. We quickly got the right folks to address these issues.”

Mische doesn’t buy any of this.

“I’m fascinated that the city thinks all this was is a screw-up over jurisdiction and protocol,” he said. “There’s a lot of finger pointing between the city and the state.”

The city spends some $300,000 a year on roadside trash cleanup and is eager to have the Department of Transportation chip in, said Ben Petok, a Coleman spokesman.

The mayor’s office and the city department of safety inspections said Monday they planned no action against the unofficial cleanup crew, including Mische.

“Absolutely not,” Petok said.

Mara Gottfried and Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

The garbage piled up in downtown Saint Paul was unacceptable. This does not meet out standards. 1/4 — Chris Coleman (@mayorcoleman) April 3, 2017

I thank the vols who spent their Sunday cleaning up the garbage, including Erich Mische, @blazeglory. — Chris Coleman (@mayorcoleman) April 3, 2017

.@MNDoT was coming to clean today but it didn’t happen soon enough. — Chris Coleman (@mayorcoleman) April 3, 2017