The City of Crookston’s Fall Clean-Up Week will take place Monday, October 19, through Friday, October 23, and Public Works Director Chuck Getsman offers residents some helpful guidelines to make the clean-up week process easy and efficient.
Clean-up crews will begin collections at 7:00 a.m. each weekday, and all items must be placed on the street boulevard by that time to ensure they are collected. Residents should not place items out more than 24 hours ahead of their scheduled pickup day. Getsman worked on a new version of the Fall Clean-Up map, which shows residents which days crews will be in their neighborhood collecting items. The goal of the new map is to make it easier for residents to determine when they need to put items out to be collected. “The map really will help you know when your pickup day is. For example, if you live near the hockey arena, that’s Thursday. We had the map created to get something new out there. Some better colors make it a little easier for people to identify which day is their day.”
Every year, Getsman receives questions about which items are eligible for collection. Some of the acceptable items include up to two appliances, up to three furniture items, and/or four mattresses, up to 10 bags of items like clothing and cardboard, up to four tires and rims, and a maximum pile size of 10 feet long by four feet wide and three feet high for demolition/bypass materials like wood, plaster, and cabinets. All items should be placed in a neat pile and kept free of obstructions, such as parked cars. “Try to keep the items you put out there in a nice stacked pile, so that the crews can work nicely without damaging the resident’s personal property. If you can make sure to avoid parking in front of the piles, sometimes we have to skip those because we don’t want to risk damaging the vehicles or anything like that.”
Getsman lists items the city will not accept, including batteries, video display devices such as televisions and computer monitors, chemicals, biohazardous waste, and loose garbage. Some of these items, including TVs and video display devices, can be taken to the Polk County Transfer Station for disposal. Getsman appreciates that Crookston residents have access to the transfer station to properly dispose of items like electronics. “Crookston is very fortunate to have the transfer station right here, and it’s a great service that they provide, allowing the residents of Polk County to go there and drop off, I would say, almost anything for free. There are some items that they will charge for, but it’s a great service to have them.”
Following Clean-Up Week, city staff will inspect boulevards and city right-of-ways for remaining debris. Residents with items left behind will receive notice and have seven days to remove the debris. If the city must remove the materials after that deadline, the property owner will be billed a $25 administrative fee, along with applicable disposal and removal costs.
Crews will pass through neighborhoods only once, so Getsman urges residents to plan ahead to avoid missing the collection. “We have an entire city to get through, and yeah, try to get your stuff out early prior to us getting there. We recommend 7:00 a.m. on the day of. You can even put it out the night before. But yes, once we get through that neighborhood, you’ll be able to tell when we pass through. And if you do have any questions, if we’ve gone through your neighborhood yet, feel free to give City Hall a call, and we’ll let you know where the crews are at.”Anyone with questions about Fall Clean-Up Week can contact Crookston City Hall at 218-281-1232.
