Tag Archives: Community Clean-Up Day

Time to purge Wyoming as city hosts fourth annual community clean-up day

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Residents unload trash into the dumpsters during Wyoming Community Clean-Up Day. (WKTV)

By City of Wyoming

The City of Wyoming is planning a Community Cleanup Day on Saturday, April 27. The event, set to follow Earth Day earlier in the week, is designed to encourage Wyoming residents to maintain their properties and dispose of unwanted items in a responsible manner.

Residents can drop off trash, household hazardous waste and donations for the Salvation Army from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Grand Rapids First Church, 2100 44th St. SW. Plummers Disposal will provide refuse hauling while Kent County will accept household hazardous waste and recyclables. 

Residents are asked to enter the parking lot through the northeast entrance off of 44th St. SW and follow the relevant signage. All residents are asked to be in line by 1:30 p.m. in order to dispose of their items.

“Last year’s cleanup day was a huge success and we were able to assist hundreds of Wyoming families,” said event organizer Dave Rupert. “Our annual cleanup day helps to beautify our neighborhoods and reduce the risk of blight throughout the community.”

Residents will have the opportunity to dispose of household hazardous waste and recycling. (WKTV)

In addition to the refuse hauling, household hazardous waste disposal and recycling, the Wyoming Public Service Center Yard Waste Drop-Off site at 2660 Burlingame Ave. SW will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are no limits to the size of branches or shrubs accepted at the site; however residents must unload the yard waste themselves and all containers must be removed from the facility.

Proof of residency identification is required at both sites. Some items, such as mattresses and tires, will have a modest disposal fee.

For more information and a complete list of items that are acceptable, visit www.wyomingmi.gov/cleanup or call the City of Wyoming at 530-7226.

Follow the City on Twitter @WyomingCityHall and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CityofWyoming.

Wyoming cleans up with another successful community clean-up day

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Almost 400 cars made their way through the City of Wyoming’s third annual Community Clean-Up Day site this past Saturday.

 

Hosted at the Grand Rapids First church, organizers said about 25,289 pounds of household hazardous waste and more than 41 tons of refuse was removed along with about 40 mattresses collected. Organizers are waiting for the numbers on recycling.

 

The Salvation Army was there as well and several items were donated.

 

The Community Clean-Up Day was established three years ago by one of the three strategic planning committees made up of city employees. When staff first came up with the plan for the community clean ups, they looked at areas of the city that had a particular amount of complaints regarding the improper disposal of refuse, according to organizers, with three specific areas identified. It was decided the event would be hosted in a different part of the city every year. The first year, 2016, it was at Godfrey-Lee Early Education Center. In 2017, it was at North Godwin Elementary School.

 

Every year the event has grown with the first year having around 332 cars to this year having almost 400 cars.

 

For those still cleaning, the city does have a Yard Waste Drop-Off site, located at 2660 Burlingame Ave. SW. There are no limits to the size of branches or shrubs, however, residents must unload the yard waste themselves and all containers must be removed from the facility.

 

Also Kent Recycling offers a number of options for a variety of items to be recycled such as metal, plastic, and paper. For more information, visit reimaginetrash.org.

 

5 Local Things You Need to Know: Headlines for the weekend

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Wyoming: Community Clean-Up Day Saturday

One of the events the City of Wyoming hosts is its annual Community Clean-Up Day.

The City of Wyoming, through the support of the Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance, will have its annual Community Clean-Up Day Saturday at Grand Rapids First, 2100 44th St. SW.

 

The site will be open form 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Residents need to have a picture ID with them or proof of residency. Residents will enter east off of 44th Street to the northeast entrance of the church. For the full store, click here.

Wyoming: Flamingo Avenue to get trees

Mayor Jack Poll reads a proclamation at last year’s Arbor Day event.

This Saturday, the Tree Amigos and student volunteers will plant 24 street trees in the City of Wyoming. Planting will begin 9 a.m. in the 4200 block of Flamingo Avenue SW where ten Wyoming residents have signed up for the project. For more on this story, click here.

Kentwood: EK student makes her stage debut

East Kentwood student Ania Powell makes her Civic Theatre debut with “Akeelah and the Bee.”

Ania Powell makes her Grand Rapids Civic Theatre debut in “Akeehal and the Bee,” which opens on Friday and runs through April 29 at the Civic Theatre, 30 N. Division Ave. For more on the story, click here.

Wyoming and Kentwood: Record Store Day is Saturday

This Saturday, April 21, is the annual Record Store Day in the Grand Rapids area and, quite literally, around the world. It is a day to celebrate small music stores but also to celebrate records — music on vinyl. For more on the story, click here.

Public Museum: “Water’s Extreme Journey” coming to a close

Water’s Extreme Journey is open now at the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) taking visitors on a quest for clean water through an experiential maze! But the exhibit is only open through April 29. For more on this story, click here.

It’s spring with Wyoming helping residents with that urge to purge

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The City of Wyoming’s annual clean up day is Saturday, April 21.

By Seth Van Ast

Editorial Assistant

 

Sometimes there are those things around the house that you want to throw away but disposal can be expensive and some items can be a hazardous challenge to handle. Well the City of Wyoming will help residents take care of that as the city hosts its third annual Community Clean-Up Day, Saturday, April 21.

 

“It came about as an opportunity for people who maybe have refuse or recycling or household hazardous waste at their homes and weren’t sure on how to get ride of those items,” said Terra Wesseldyk, who is with the Wyoming Public Safety Department and is heading up this year’s event. “We wanted to help make Wyoming beautiful, so we developed a program in which people could come to a centralized location and get rid of all those items.”

 

Recycle Kent will be on hand at this year’s event.

Started in 2016 through a employee committee, the event encouraged many in the city to clean up and dispose of unwanted items. Every year the event has grown with last year, more than 400 vehicles going through the 2017 location at North Godwin Elementary School, which was a 20 percent increase over the previous year’s event. About 15,000 pounds of electronics were recycled including 140 tubed TVs. About 5,096 pounds of household hazardous waste was dropped off and 4,400 pounds of metal were recycled. About 43 dumpsters were filled and 60 toms of refuse was hauled away by Plummer’s Disposal.

 

Also every year, the event has been at a different location.

 

“It was developed as a plan in which we would move the location of the clean up to different areas in order to serve each area of the city,” Wesseldyk said. “So that people who weren’t able to bring large items to an area across the city, that if they had it closer to them they would be able to bring larger items to us.”

 

This year’s event will be at First Grand Rapids, 2100 44th St. SW. 

 

“People will need to enter traveling eastbound on 44th Street and enter at the northeast entrance of Grand Rapids First,” Wesseldyk said. “There will be lines and there will be volunteers showing where to enter. All the other entrances will be barricaded so nobody can go in any of the other entrances.”

 

Join the challenge by getting rid of old electronics.

Trash, recycling, and household hazardous waste will be accepted with a picture ID to show proof of Wyoming residency. Organizers are asking that people show up no later than 1:30 p.m. The Kent County Department of Public Works, Recycle Kent and the Salvation Army will be on hand to take various items.

 

The only items that citizens will be charged for dropping off will be mattresses, box springs and tires. All of this is being sponsored by the the Greater Wyomig Community Resource Alliance.

 

For questions or further information, call 616-530-7226 or visit wyomingmi.gov/cleanup

Wyoming residents certainly purged making city’s community clean-up day a big success

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Residents unload trash into the dumpsters during the Wyoming Community Clean-Up Day.
Residents unload trash into the dumpsters during the Wyoming Community Clean-Up Day.

Of those who came, most didn’t mind waiting to dump their trash and other items at the Godfrey-Lee Athletic Field this past Saturday. They were just happy that the City of Wyoming was hosting the Community Clean-Up Day event.

 

“We’re just appreciative that the City of Wyoming did this,” said Wyoming resident Michael Donavan, who also works at Godfrey-Lee. Donavan said his family recently helped his father clean out his garage and he came with a truck and trailer full of items.

 

“The wait is not that big of deal,” said Wyoming resident Melissa Digiovanna, who had her own vehicle along with a friend’s truck full of items. “It is just super awesome that the city is doing this.”

 

Early indicators showed that the Wyoming Community Clean-Up Day was to be a success as the original story on now.wktv.org had more than 425 Facebook shares. City officials said there was a line when the event opened at 8 a.m. this past Saturday with one of the four dumpsters completely full shortly after opening.

 

The line to get into the Community Clean-Up Day at one point was backed up to where Joosten Street intersected with Godfrey Lee Avenue.
The line to get into the Community Clean-Up Day at one point was backed up to where Joosten Street intersected with Godfrey Lee Avenue.

Nancy Stoddard, who works in the city’s treasurer’s office and was part of the organizing committee, had hoped for about 300 cars. Final count was 332 vehicles  – including some small U-Haul-style trucks. About 130 of those vehicles dropped off household hazardous waste and 33 20-yard roll-offs of trash were collected. Stoddard said she was still waiting on total tonnage collected.

 

Stoddard said the committee, which was the city employee group Looks Good Committee, already has begun thinking about next year’s event which includes checking with Godfrey-Lee about possibly having the same location. “I have been checking into grant opportunities,” Stoddard said. This year’s event was unwritten by grants. Also Stoddard said next year, organizers are planning to start with eight dumpsters on the ground to help move people through faster.

 

“The area that we had this year was so spacious, we really had room for more,” Stoddard said.

 

Megan Kretz, a resource recovery specialist from the Kent County Department of Public Works and who was helping with the event, said the way the Community Clean-Up Day had been organized and laid out, it really didn’t seem like a first-time event. Cars entered through Joosten Street into the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center’s west parking lot and curved around exiting on to Godfrey Avenue. There were several checkpoints where people could unload household hazardous waste, gently used items to the Salvation Army, recycle items and trash.

 

“It’s a wonderful event,” said Matthis Fields who was with the Salvation Army. “I love doing these type of events. It’s a beautiful day. Nice weather and I am just so glad to be here.”

 

As Fields talked, one of the volunteers walked by with a fireplace in an unopened box to put on the Salvation Army truck, which was about two-thirds full by noon.

 

“This just happens to be one of the good parts, events like these,” Fields said with a smile.