By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Yachats’ annual “Clean Sweep” event may be getting too popular – and big – for its own good.
The city-sponsored event each June encourages people to bring unwanted household items, yard debris and other junk to the field behind the 501 Building. Trash goes into dumpsters and better household items are laid out for other people to pick over and take away. Anything left Sunday night is tossed as well.
But a variety of factors last month led to unanticipated problems, and on Tuesday the city’s Public Works and Streets Commission – which organizes the event – started a candid post-mortem.
Its discussion included the possibility of cancelling the event.
Part of the problem is that Dahl Disposal has raised its dump fees, which is discouraging some people from disposing of trash themselves. When they see a chance to dump junk for free they jump on it.
The amount of junk dropped off was so much that the city had to call Dahl to request a special trip Saturday evening to pick up an overflowing dumpster.
This year’s event also suffered from some disorganization, miscommunication of times, days and trash restrictions, lack of signs and traffic control, and too long of shifts for volunteers.
But the biggest issue is that it might be getting too big for a small city and a smaller group of volunteers.
The event is promoted to Yachats residents, but word gets out and people end up coming from all over south Lincoln County, said Public Works commission members. Volunteers do not ask for identification, but allow dumping by anyone who drives up.
“We’re going to have to be more aggressive in saying this is a city event, not a county event,” said commission chair Bob Bennett. “But how do you do that without being confrontational?”
Ron Urban said he was “really disappointed in what I saw down there … how people conducted themselves.
“People looked you in the eye (when asked if they lived in Yachats) and then just dumped their stuff,” Urban said.
Planning Commission chair Helen Anderson said she was shopping in Waldport and overheard people talking about taking their trash to Yachats. She suggested requiring people to have a “coupon” from the city newsletter or from City Hall before being allowed to dump their junk.
Ann Stott suggested the event be shortened to two days – Friday and Saturday – rather than three.
“I don’t know why we need three days,” she said. “It’s not that big a town. The smaller the amount of time the less time for abuse.”
Others suggested moving the event to September, saying the old idea of cleaning up before the crush of July 4th visitors no longer holds.
Bennett said he will ask City Manager Shannon Beaucaire how much the event costs the city. There is no cost estimate or specific line-item in the city budget for it.
Public Works team leader Dave Buckwald said that cost should also include the time of city workers who spent much of Monday after the event cleaning the field of shattered glass and other debris left behind.
Bennett said he will summarize main problems with the event, possible solutions and present them to the commission next month to prioritize.
“One of the things we need to add to the list is not doing this anymore,” he said.
No one on the commission disagreed.
“It needs to be a point of discussion,” Stott said.