On Saturday, May 5 from 8 a.m. until noon, Perry residents are invited to haul their unwanted items to the Pattee Park parking lot at W. Third Street and Park Road, where a crew from the Perry Public Works Department will collect residents’ unwanted junk for disposal at the landfill.
A small fee will be collected from residents at the time of the drop off. The fees, payable in cash or by check, will follow this schedule:
- $5 for a carload or full SUV
- $15 for a truckload, full minivan or full large SUV
- $30 for a heaping truckload, full passenger van or full flatbed
The price for an individual appliance — washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers — is $10.
Items that will not be accepted include car tires, hazardous materials and batteries, TVs and computer monitors.
The drop-off event, which will replace the city’s annual curbside collection called the Perry Spring Clean-Up, was approved Monday night by the Perry City Council on the recommendation of the city hall administration and the Perry Public Works Department.
Several conditions caused this new arrangement, according to Perry Finance Officer Susie Moorhead and Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler. First was the ongoing challenge of collecting fees for the curbside collection.
Many residents participated in the Perry Spring Clean-Up by setting their junk on the curb for city workers to collect, but a large number of residents did not pay the bill then issued by mail from city hall.
“There’s a few things that have caused this,” said Moorhead. “There’s been issues with nonpayment of spring clean-up bills. We bill, and we bill, and we bill, and people don’t pay. Finally, after giving them three or four chances, three or four statements to pay, if they own the property, we put a lien on the property. But then the problem is if it’s a landlord, then we’ve got to bill the landlord because their tenant hasn’t paid.”
The city hopes to solve this problem by collecting the fees at the time of drop off.
“We’re going to make them prepay,” Butler said. “That’s a big key to this because of all the time city hall takes sending out bills every month to get $20 or $25 out of somebody. Susie has to sit and bill and bill and bill for six or seven months in a row, and then we have to sit down and determine does the city want to just swallow this and eat it, or do we want to go after them and put a lien on their property, and there goes more time and wasted resources. So we’re going to go with that prepay system. If you do not pay, you will not be able to get rid of it.”
A second condition causing the change in procedure was the messes left behind by scavengers who sorted through their neighbors’ curbside junk, tearing open bags and poking into boxes and scattering items around the yard before moving on.
“We have a heck of a time with the scavengers,” said Butler. “The homeowner brings it out, and it’s nice and neat, and they’ve got it all boxed up and bagged up, and the scavengers and scrappers come and just tear everything open and dump it on the ground. It makes a huge mess, and that’s not what this is about.”
A third condition was the safety risks posed by unacceptable items set out for collection, such as refrigerators and freezers full of rotting food, carpets and bedding full of human or animal feces and other dangerous items, such as needles and other medical waste.
“Honest to God,” Butler said, “we have had people that have had a freezer that went bad, and they just left it in their garage, and then they drug it out. Well, we can’t take that, and you open it up. We had somebody that actually had five-gallon buckets of human waste that they set out there and felt that we should pick that up. We’ve had problem with needles, you know, diabetic folks, bags full of needles. There’s a lot to it. We’re just trying to clean it up and get the homeowners to be responsible. You want to get rid of it? You got to pay to get rid of it.”
Moorhead echoed the safety concerns.
“We’ve had problems with things like needles,” she said, “things like pet waste, rolled up carpets with dog poo all over it. There’s been issues with freezers full of rotten food, things like that, but most dangerous is anything like needles or broken glass that could really hurt someone.”
If there is a large response on the drop-off day, the drive-through drop off point at Pattee Park will allow residents to line up along W. Third Street while waiting to unload.
“The city employees will be there to help unload,” Moorhead said. “Then we’ll just put them in the garbage truck and go back and forth to the dump that morning.”
In case of rain, the Recycling Center at 14325 Ivy Place will be the drop-off point.
“We know we’re going to get some backlash,” Butler said, “but I hope people understand there’s a reason for it. It’s going to be a big change because everybody’s used to just throwing it out in front of their house. It’s frustrating that it has to come to this, but it’s something that just had to happen.”
For residents who cannot haul their junk to Pattee Park, a special pickup can be scheduled by calling the Perry City Hall at 515-465-2481.
Perry residents should also be aware of the free appliance and scrap metal collection scheduled for Saturday, June 2 from 8 a.m. until noon at the Perry Recycling Center.
“If you have a truck and all you have is appliances,” Moorhead said, “your best bet is going to be waiting until June 2, and then you can drop them off at no charge.”
