Ok, Yachats folks, time to get rid of that junk piling up in your garage, attic and backyard – for free.
The city’s annual “Clean Sweep” event starts Friday in the street and ballfield area west of the 501 Building. It runs 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Dahl Disposal is co-sponsor of the event.
It’s the city’s annual effort to help spruce up Yachats – the other is enforcement of rules starting July 1 on overgrown yards and lots – before the Fourth of July holiday that brings thousands of tourists to the area.
The “Clean Sweep” rules are fairly simple. Whatever you can put in your weekly trash pickup, you can haul to the site.
Items that won’t be accepted are tires, paint, chemicals, plastic bags and glass. You’ll have to take those to Dahl’s transfer station in Waldport.
What will be accepted is brush, metal, trash (including Styrofoam, plastics, finished wood, waxed containers, etc.) electronics, batteries and light bulbs.
People are also encouraged to bring “good” household items they no longer want. Volunteers will put those items to the side – and anyone is welcome to take it. If it’s not gone by Sunday evening, then it goes into the trash.
“This is kind of like a citywide yard sale – except everything is free,” Mayor John Moore told the City Council this month.
Bob Bennett, chair of the city’s Public Works and Streets Commission which organizes the event, said if someone comes along and takes a drop-off item “then it works.”
“A lot of very strange things have shown up from time to time … and some of them disappear right away,” he said.
There are no restrictions of who can participate – volunteers don’t check to see if someone lives in the city – but Bennett said they will turn away commercial landscapers or businesses trying to discard their trash.
