By JOHN E. WEARE
KAB
Summer will not end without the return of Alliance’s free city-wide clean up Friday and Saturday, August 22-23, at the landfill. Keep Alliance Beautiful will focus on gathering electronics, including just about anything that takes batteries or has a cord, instead of the bins for miscellaneous recycling offered at the debut 2024 event.
KAB recently completed a litter index to gauge the presence of smaller rubbish throughout Alliance (and Hemingford). Our municipal government, however, is again targeting persistent trash, junk and debris in homes and yards in town. The goal is to coax residents – with a free pass – to haul everything that may not have been fit for the rolloff or alley receptacle.
The cleanup will take place during regular business hours both days, just enter the gate at 1441 East Kansas Street and wait your turn. We hope to fill KAB’s white IBC totes marked with blue “A”s with items such as: computers/computer parts, printers/copy machines, TVs/VCRs/DVD players, gaming consoles, cell phones, stereos/speakers, microwaves, small appliances, batteries (anything smaller than car batteries), electronic charging cables, etcetera. The landfill will accept items with freon: A/C units, fridges, freezers and others. However, they will not take commercial/business refuse, construction and demolition (C&D), railroad ties, car batteries or chemicals.
Residents must bring an old city bill that matches the name on the ID for the resident who is dumping. Also, participants are responsible for hauling their own belongings.
The goal of an annual community cleanup, in my opinion, is to amass as much junk as possible that probably should have made its way to the landfill since the previous cleanup. Taking whatever a household has been meaning to throw away and getting rid of it for free should be an adequate incentive. Yet, everyone who pays for the garbage truck driver to cart off their trash receives two free coupons to take a load to the landfill for free over a 12-month period. How many people take advantage of that perk? Or what if your vehicle lacks the room to transport everything that should leave the premises for the city-wide cleanup? What if you don’t mind your yard being mistaken for Fred Sanford’s?
I, like others, have items hanging around that need to disappear, and a city-wide cleanup is as good a reason as anything. Talk to your neighbor with a pickup truck and a little time on their hands and see if they will take a few things for people on the block who do not have the means.
Several weeks ago, KAB took a request from a lady who wished to dispose of a stone dog from her front yard. We perform this service on occasion for people who may be physically unable to do so. So, not knowing the size of the pooch, I enlisted Keith’s help. We pulled into the drive to see the white dog sitting by the garage door with its head on the concrete. The owner said the head had just fallen off. I assured her it did not matter how the dog became headless. We managed to heft the bulky body into the pickup as well as the head. I appreciated the call. It was nice to be able to clear a yard of a broken lawn ornament.
We forgot to remove the dog at closing time. The morning crew later tossed the head, but we put the rest of the statue right where patrons turn right at the front door. He must have looked friendly, even without a head, as a toilet showed up the next day to keep the dog company. We disposed of the toilet, but the guard dog stays. My advice: Take part in the community-wide cleanup. Skip dumping “for free” at KAB and try the landfill this time.