For many people, spring is a time to clean up and get rid of unwanted junk. Just in time for like-minded area residents, spring is also the time for city and township cleanup days.

 

Five local communities held their annual cleanup day last Saturday morning; the City of Clear Lake and Clear Lake Twp., Palmer Twp. and the City of Clearwater and Lynden Twp.

 

Area residents were lined up with truck and trailer loads of unwanted items before the gates even opened, and traffic at all three sites kept on arriving pretty steadily throughout the morning.

 

At the Clear Lake drop-off site, 20 volunteers and paid workers, including Clear Lake Mayor Tim Goenner and members of the Clear Lake Twp. Board, were on hand to help the 66 household owners who brought in items, down from the 87 who came through last year.

 

When the event was over, one tire container and one metal container had been filled, the Becker Furniture World truck was half filled with 18 mattresses, and one garbage compactor had been filled with another coming in to take its place.

 

Residents at Palmer Twp. came out in large numbers, with 201 households bringing in their unwanted items by the end of the event.

 

Sixty-Nine City of Clearwater and Lynden Twp. households came through the Clearwater drop-off site, 32 of which were from Clearwater and 37 from Lynden. They left behind 35 appliances, 85 tires, 21 rims and 2,106 pounds of electrical waste. 

 

Organizers said numbers were down from last year, which was probably due to the original April date changing.