Spring Clean-up is Saturday

Apr. 10—Spring is the time to pick-up, fix-up and spruce-up and Saturday is the day of the Keep Athens Beautiful Spring Clean-up.

KAB will partner with the City of Athens and Republic Services to open the Aaron Street Collection Site from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. for citizens of Athens to clean up their yards and streets and bring it out free of charge.

Please bring your driver's license and water bill to prove residency.

Teams can sign-up to be given a portion of the city to clean. Citizens are invited to round up family, neighbors, friends or fellow club members to form teams, large or small. You can call KAB at 903-675-7961 with questions about the event.

No hazardous materials, oil products, paint products, tires, appliances or construction debris will be accepted.

The Athens event is held alongside the Texas Department of Transportation Don't Mess With Texas Trash Off, the largest single day clean-up in the state each year.

According to TxDOT, a little over 30 years ago, it was spending $20 million annually on trash pick-up, and that number was increasing by about 17% year over year. So the department put out a request for a marketing campaign to address the rubbish.

Although the National Weather Services is predicting a chance of rain on Friday, the forecast for Saturday looks to be warm and sunny, perfect for rolling up the sleeves and gathering up trash, debris and branches.

The clean-up on Saturday will not include tires and electronics recycling. That event is planned for May 1 in the parking lot of the judicial building. Tires will be limited to eight per-household.