Cities schedule times, days for spring cleanup
Spring is in the air, which means it’s also spring cleanup time for local communities, including Clinton, Norris and Rocky Top.
Rocky Top already has its annual neighborhood cleanup under way, with city public works crews picking up household discards throughout the month of March.
Clinton’s is next, with Spring Clean-up Day scheduled for Monday, April 5.
Following that is cleanup week in Norris, set for April 12-16.
It’s the time to get rid of household items that have been collecting over the past year or have recently become expendable, but which aren’t suitable for regular trash pickup days.
On the city of Clinton website, a notice says, “Public Works crews will be collecting items that normally are not collected during household garbage pickup and taking them to the Chestnut Ridge Landfill (residential only, no commercial items collected).”
It further notes that “Residents should place refuse and rubbish items beside the street, ensuring that nothing protrudes into the street or obstructs sidewalks, utility poles, water meters, fire hydrants, or mailboxes,” and that “items for collection MUST be at the curb by 7:30 a.m. Monday April 5.”
“Public Works crews will be following a scheduled route to make collections one time on each residential street,” the notice states. “Once a crew has cleared an individual street, they will move to another area and will not be able to return for a second or late collection. The maximum quantity of items per household is the equivalent of one pickup truck load.”
Among the items eligible for pickup are water heaters, stoves, mattresses, box springs, furniture, and appliances.
Recyclable items such as electronics, computers, TVs, newspapers, magazines, plastics, cardboard, glass, and cans “should be separated so we may deliver them to our Recycling Center, rather than the sanitary landfill,” the Clinton notice says.
As with Norris and Rocky Top, Clinton crews will not be able to pick up:
• Tires.
• Building materials or debris from remodeling.
• Hazardous materials (paint, asbestos, solvents, batteries, petroleum products).
• Air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers.
The city notes, however, that “some of these items may be dropped off at the Blockhouse Valley” waste facility.
For specific information, people can call Anderson County Solid Waste at 865-463-6845, according to Dwayne Wilkerson, Clinton’s public works director.
In Rocky Top, spring cleaning pickups began in early March on this schedule: the south half of the city in the first and third weeks of the month (this is now the third week), and the north side in the second and fourth weeks, according to City Manager Michael Foster.
In the last few days of the month, Rocky Top public works crews will go back around to pick up anything that was missed in the first two rounds of pickups, he said.
Norris will do its spring pickups over the entire week of April 12-16, and crews will take “anything two people can pick up and put in the back of a dump truck,” except for the prohibited items, said City Manager Scott Hackler.
In Norris, the prohibited items are the same as in the other cities.
“Residents are required to keep all materials off sidewalks, parking areas and out of gutters for the safety of pedestrians and motorists,” a Norris notice says.
In all three cities, brush and leaf collections are covered under separate policies, and those materials are not pickup up during the special spring cleaning times.