Clean-Up Week in full swing
Pickups piled high Sunday and Monday with TVs, lawnmowers, bikes and other household items no one paid for — well, not their newest owners anyway. Jamestown’s City-wide Clean-Up Week began with the first piles of “trash’ in the boulevards this weekend. But as any Jamestown resident knows, during this week, one neighbor’s trash is often another’s treasure.
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Pickups piled high Sunday and Monday with TVs, lawnmowers, bikes and other household items no one paid for — well, not their newest owners anyway.
Jamestown’s City-wide Clean-Up Week began with the first piles of “trash’ in the boulevards this weekend. But as any Jamestown resident knows, during this week, one neighbor’s trash is often another’s treasure.
Clean-Up Week is an annual spring-cleaning event. The city invites its residents to throw out unwanted items like furniture, toys, building materials, tree branches, etc. and crews clean the items from the curbs. But before they do, many residents filter the piles for items they can repurpose and reuse. Crews cleaned the streets of southeast Jamestown Monday. Pickup continues in the southwest quadrant today.
Jamestown resident Dan Forvilly said he spent a couple hours searching the streets. He wasn’t “shopping” for anything in particular, but did find a crib and crib mattress unopened and in their original packaging. He said the finds will find use at his home — he’s the father of seven with another baby on the way.
It’s not uncommon to discover new and unopened materials in the piles of material destined for the landfill, said Harold Sad, city of Jamestown Street Department foreman. Sad assists with Cleanup Week.
His crews never take any of those items, though. They don’t have time. They’re too busy disposing of everything, he said.
So Jamestown area residents try to make it to the homes before the crews do.
Theresa Gallagher, for example, and her granddaughter, 4-year-old Briana Guthmiller, drove through town Sunday, in search of items Briana and her cousins can use. They found at least two truckloads full, and more.
“I found a snowblower this morning and it works,” Gallagher said Sunday.
Jamestown resident Tom Ravely snagged some finds too — a tonneau cover, a bike, a lawn mower, a foosball table and a red stuffed animal to match the red 1973 Trans Am he restored. Ravely even found the “jackpot” he said jokingly — metal clothes hangers.
“My wife hates it when I bring home clothes hangers, but everybody needs clothes hangers,” he said.
Ravely also “shops” for others. He was on the hunt for tools and extension cords to donate to the Arts Center.
And in addition to finding free goods, Jamestown residents look to make a few dollars on Clean-Up Week as well.
About a dozen “scavengers” had stopped into West End Hide, Fur & Metal Co. Monday afternoon with grill tops, exercise equipment and other metal objects in search of a small stipend. An average check for a pickup full of scrap metal is about $25 or $30, said Jeff Oster, owner.
A dozen drop-offs the first day is average, he said. Although in the early years of Clean-Up Weeks, more people dropped off materials. That’s likely because people have gotten rid of many of their metal materials throughout the years, Oster said.
Metal isn’t allowed in Clean-Up Week. Crews won’t pick it up. They also won’t collect normal household garbage, appliances, electronics, automotive products or paint, solvents, thinners, primers, varnishes and stains.
Sad said despite the rules, residents leave some of those items out anyway.
“We just leave it,” Sad said.
Residents should dispose of household garbage on normal garbage days. Gerdau Ameristeel or West End Hide, Fur & Metal Co. will take appliances, boats, metals, automobiles and automotive batteries and may charge a disposal fee.
Residents can drop electronics, florescent or mercury vapor light bulbs, boats, large-scale building and remodeling debris, metals, paint, solvents, primers, varnishes, stains, automotive tires and oil to the City Baler facility. The baler may also charge a fee.
Sad said he’s seen some violations including piles appearing too early. Residents aren’t allowed to set out the materials any more than two days before crews are scheduled to collect them.
Throughout Cleanup Week, senior citizens and handicapped persons in need of assistance throwing materials away may contact the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce at 252-4830.
The recycling center in Jamestown is also open every afternoon until 6 p.m. this week and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Sun reporter Katie Ryan-Anderson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by e-mail at kryan-anderson@ jamestownsun.com
Tags: local news, news, cleanup
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