By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
About 665 tons of debris was collected from curb sides as nearly 3,000 Yukon households were aided in spring-cleaning efforts thanks to city work crews.
The city’s residential customers were offered free curbside bulk pickups during the week of April 22-26, with items collected on their normal trash days. By Tuesday this week, it was all hauled off.
Yukon residents placed “big trash” at the curb for pick-up by city crews. Thirty percent of Yukon’s almost 9,000 household customers participated in the big junk curbside pickup effort.
“We’re very happy with the event and with the participation among our residents,” Yukon City Manager Jim Crosby said. “It showed us there was a need for doing this.
“I thought it was a very successful event and it’s something we’re thinking about doing again in the fall.”
Public works employees from several city departments pitched in to pick up the big trash items left at the curb. This included sanitation, streets, parks maintenance, and sewer personnel.
City crews ended up picking up what equaled 44 transfer trailers of bulk material hauled totaling 4,400 cubic yards and weighing 664.93 tons.
The cost to Yukon to dump that at the landfill was $11,270.56. The city captured 22.6 tons of metal for which it was paid $2,131.95.
‘WORKED OUT REALLY WELL’
Yukon sanitation director Bill Stover thought the free curbside bulk pickup event “went great.”
“Everything worked out really well,” Stover said. “For the most part, the public adhered to the regulations that we set forth on how to put stuff out. That was a big help.
“We got a lot of support from the public while we were out in the field and got a lot of nice compliments from them. I think everybody appreciated us being out there.”
Yukon accepted these items during the curbside bulk pickup effort: Large and small household appliances (non-freon), furniture, mattresses, carpet, tree trimmings and branches, yard waste, fence panels (cut into four-foot by four-foot pieces), and glass and mirrors (boxed or wrapped securely).
City crews were not able to pick up some materials, such as refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, televisions, monitors, batteries, and automotive waste oil and antifreeze.
Instead, residents were encouraged to bring these items to a spring recycle event on April 20 at the city’s transfer station, 501 Ash.
“They brought in the tires, the TVs, the refrigerants, and white goods,” Stover said. “They brought that stuff down that Saturday.
“That was a big help, clearing a lot of that stuff off of the curb prior to us even starting (curbside pickup).”
Total numbers included 120 televisions, 140 tires and 112 gallons of used motor oil.
Yukon’s recycle day event at the transfer station gives people “an opportunity to clear it out before we encounter it on a pile somewhere and they’re wondering why we left it,” Stover said.
Other items not picked up curbside during the big trash event included: Hazardous substances, dirt, bricks, rock, concrete, sheet rock, and typical household garbage.
“There was some stuff that people put out (at the curb) that we couldn’t pick up that was on the list that we asked not to be out,” Stover said. “But for the most part, everybody followed what we wanted done. It went really well, actually better than I anticipated.”
DONE IN A WEEK
This was the first time in about 15 years that Yukon offered a curbside pick-up service for large junk items. That time, it took city crews several weeks to pick everything up.
This time, it was done in a week.
“All the public works employees and our contractor, Arbor Masters, worked together to complete the curbside pickup in six days with some mop-up work on the seventh day,” said Stover, who is in his 38th year with Yukon.
Yukon residents certainly seemed to welcome having a large trash curbside pick-up event provided by city workers.
“We got lots of praise while working through the neighborhoods,” Stover said. “Citizens brought us drinks and snacks. Some residents even helped load the truck.
“Parents even brought their children out to watch us load up. (Many) told us their child watches the trash truck every week we come by.”
Stover, who has been Yukon’s sanitation director since 2012, offered kudos to the city public works employees for putting in a “ton of hours” and doing an “outstanding job.”
