While overall tonnage was down, volunteerism at this year’s Cheney Clean Sweep was at an all-time high.
The eighth annual community clean up day had 300 individuals ranging from young to old and from college students to long-time residents taking part in patrolling the city streets, fields and parks looking for debris. Public Works Director Todd Ableman said this year there weren’t many areas identified by the city as problem areas requiring special clean up focus, so volunteers didn’t have a lot to pick up.
Overall, 16.47 tons was collected, consisting of 8.23 tons of garbage, 4.84 tons of construction debris and 3.40 tons of metals either picked up or dropped off at two dumpster stations in the city. By contrast, 21.92 tons were collected last year, with 26.90 tons collected in 2013, 17.48 tons in 2012 and 20.84 tons in 2011.
A feature added this year, household hazardous waste, seemed to be popular among residents, Ableman said, although the amount received is difficult to quantify.
“(We) took in 20 containers of household hazardous waste products,” Ableman said in an email.
Also down was the number of tires residents dropped off at Les Schwab. Ableman said 60 tires were brought in, which is actually a good number since getting residents to properly dispose of old tires and other household debris throughout the year has been a focus of the city’s efforts to enforce its nuisance codes.
“That’s not a bad thing because we’re getting caught up on tires,” Ableman said. “We’ve made an effort the last couple of years to round up tires that are lying around.”
In a collaboration with Cheney Federal Credit Union, 2,400 pounds of personal documents were brought in to a shredding truck at the credit union furnished by United Data Security to dispose of during Clean Sweep. In a news release, the credit union also said 200 pounds of food were collected to be donated to Cheney Food Bank.
The decline in tonnage led to the lowest expense for Clean Sweep over the past five years. The city paid a net amount of $562.83, calculating expenses for garbage at $493.80, and $298.18 for building materials while receiving a $229.15 credit from disposal of metals.
By comparison, Cheney paid $1,062.02 in 2013, receiving $709.90 for metals while also having the building material disposal fee donated.
“All in all it was a great day,” Ableman said of this year’s Clean Sweep.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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