Jackson residents bring out larger items for annual cleanup week

Jackson residents cleaned house this week. They also cleaned garages, basements and attics. With the city sponsoring its annual Clean Up/Fix Up Week, large items that are normally not collected during trash service were placed curbside and picked up with regular household trash.

Sanitation foreman Brent Reid said he runs four trucks every day during the week, but his six-man crew still needs extra help with the increased load. This year the department hired four temporary workers to help throughout the week. Reid said if the department did not hire the extra help, his crew would never get all of the trash collected during a normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift.

The cleanup week used to take place twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. A few years ago the city consolidated the event into one week in July. While some residents have commented that the move to the hottest time of the year makes it difficult to carry loads of heavy items to the curb, Reid said July works well for him and his crew.

"It's usually not raining. It is usually dry. When the items get wet, they are twice as heavy for us. We wear rain suits, too, and that makes you really hot," he said.

Reid, who has worked for the department for 15 years, said the annual cleanup week brings a lot of the same types of items. He and his crew said they have collected a lot of couches, mattresses, lumber and furniture. This year he and his crew have picked up a few more interesting items, such as a large box of 1979 high school yearbooks, toilets, the frame of a pickup truck, a piano and a hot tub.

Of course, those extra-large items require the crews to work together.

"We always work together, but in the summertime it is the hardest. This week if we didn't work as a team, we wouldn't get done," crew member Chris Roberts said. Roberts has been with the department for three years and said while the work is physical and demanding, the public tends to be supportive of the crews.

"Most people are understanding to an extent. Almost every day there is someone coming out and giving us water," he said.

Other crew members said while members of the public may be supportive, they don't always realize how vulnerable the sanitation crews are during collection.

"It is like our vests make us moving targets. The other day I picked up a bag and turned around and a car's bumper was at my knee," crew member Alex Carr said.

Gene Kerns, another member of the sanitation crew, agreed. He urged motorists to be cautious while crews were collecting. He said motorists should wait the "extra 10 seconds" it takes for crews to get the trash and get back on the truck before trying to pass.

During last year's Clean Up/Fix Up Week, crews collected almost 275 tons of trash. This year's event will not conclude until this evening, but crews said loads seem to be consistent with past cleanup weeks.

Many of the items picked up during the week were recyclable. When items such as barbecue grills are placed curbside, crews put those on a separate truck and deliver them to the city's recycling center.

While the city recycles some items, people from Jackson and the surrounding areas also look through the curbside items for recycling opportunities.

Chris Hendricks of Cape Girardeau was in Jackson on Wednesday morning looking for scrap metal. The trailer he pulled behind his truck was loaded with aluminum-framed chairs and other scraps he planned on selling to a local recycling center for cash.

Some Jackson citizens have complained about the people who sift through their trash, saying they often tear open bags and leave a mess behind, but Reid said those people actually help sanitation crews by lightening their load.

cbartholomew@semissourian.com

243-8600

Pertinent address:

Jackson, MO

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0cAjcNJ6TZk&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0cAjcNJ6TZk&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385">