Local

Big cleanup under way after championship game

ATLANTA — Crews spent the day cleaning up heaps of trash left in parking lots near the Georgia Dome after Sunday night's historic Falcons game.

Workers on the privately owned parking lots were bagging and blowing the garbage into piles for trucks to remove it on Monday.

Crews at one lot on Northside Drive, across the street from the Dome were working before sunrise. They told Channel 2's Diana Davis this was the worst they'd ever seen it.

"This is the first year I ever seen this lot messed up like this. I dread it, but it's part of the job," Alfred Lewis said.

Lewis said he's the brother of the owner and hired six men to clean up. They're here after every home game.

"My guys got out here at about 6:30 this morning, and we've been out here ever since. (We'll) be out here (until) it's all gone. It's pretty disgusting. It smells bad. Real bad," Lewis said.

Across the street, the situation at the Dome parking lots was an entirely different story.

Officials with the city's Public Works Department said workers for both the city and the Dome were out right after the game cleaning out trash cans that overflowed Sunday afternoon.

Except for a few stray beer cans and bottles, Davis discovered no one would ever know how trashed the lots had been.

Back across the street at the private lot, workers who said cleanup normally takes just a couple of hours were at it for at least four times that long.

Jorge Dejesus said the mess was about what he expected.

"From the time I've been doing this job, this is the worst day. You know it looked like they had been partying all night," Dejesus said.

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