[04/15/03]Vicksburg will help residents with spring cleaning by providing commercial garbage containers six times this spring and summer.

The city will be divided into northern, central and southern districts for placement of the containers at four spots in each district. The first date is April 26 and will coincide with Keep Vicksburg-Warren Beautiful’s annual Great American Cleanup.

On the first day, the containers will be at Ford and Hutson streets in Kings, and KVWB will have a disposal site at the former Battlefield Village mall as part of the annual citywide cleanup.

Residents will be allowed to dispose of most household waste including yard debris, furniture and appliances at the KVWB site or in the city-sponsored containers. A spot near the city containers will also be designated for tires, said Victor Gray-Lewis, director of building and inspections.

He said the effort is to curb the amount of litter and trash that often ends up in secluded parts of the city.

“So all that debris won’t end up on the slope of a hillside somewhere,” Gray-Lewis said.

Litter and illegal dump sites have been a problem in Vicksburg and Warren County for years and Gray-Lewis, who heads the department that enforces litter laws, said the city wants to provide an option to people who are doing major cleanups or simple spring cleaning and yard work.

Residents can put yard waste inside the 96-gallon containers the city issued in November or alongside the container on the second day of pickup. Gray-Lewis said the commercial containers will give residents another option to get rid of a lot of garbage at one time.

He said he also hopes it will spark an interest in neighborhood cleanup.

“Other major cities do this, and it goes very well,” Gray-Lewis said.

The city-sponsored containers will accept almost anything except hazardous materials such as oil, paint or car batteries. This year there will be no hazardous waste disposal day as in previous years because the city did not get a state grant that funds that program.

City officials have said they expect to receive the grant funding for the popular event in 2004.

Mayor Laurence Leyens also stressed that the city-sponsored commercial containers are not for contractors looking to save a few bucks.

“If we find out a contractor has used them for disposal of commercial garbage we will come after them and make them pay for everything,” Leyens said.

Someone from the city will be at each of the sites to monitor what goes into the containers, Gray-Lewis said. The cost of the program will be $256 per container each day.

The containers will be put out at 7:30 a.m. and picked up at 3:30 p.m.

Except on the first day of the program, containers will be placed at four locations in each district. There are six dates for the program which means each area will be hit twice this summer.

Gray-Lewis said that if it is successful, the city will look at doing it again this fall and next spring.

Leyens said the administration may also start a program where city crews will pick up large piles of residential yard waste by appointment for a fee. It would be similar to the once-a-week rubbish pickup that ended Nov. 1 with new garbage rules.

The workers would come from other city departments such as right-of-way or the street department and would use the same equipment used under the old system that has now been allocated to other departments.