By AIMEE CHO
Cleanup efforts at the Jungle, a homeless encampment in Ithaca on South Fulton Street, have continued over the past week in order to increase emergency vehicle access, according to Kevin Sutherland, chief of staff of the City of Ithaca.
Due to being flanked on its three sides by creeks and railroad tracks, the Jungle is largely inaccessible by vehicles, Sutherland said.
This issue resurfaced Wednesday around 5:20 p.m. when a dead body was discovered in the Jungle. Police officers who arrived on the scene had a difficult time accessing the area where the body lay, due to no road existing to provide vehicle access.
The body was identified as Russell Kellogg, a resident of the Jungle. Witnesses said that Kellogg had been drinking and possibly using intravenous drugs before he collapsed on the railroad tracks that run through the Jungle. Another Jungle resident dragged Kellogg’s body off the tracks onto the gravel nearby, where it remained for about 10 minutes before the police were called to the scene.
A memorial stands in the Ithaca Jungle for George E. Bowlsby, who died at age 60 in May 2010. Bowsby had been interviewed in a 2007 documentary, The Jungle’s Edge. (Aimee Cho / Sun Staff Writer)