City officials are recruiting volunteers from churches and homeowners associations to help with the city’s “Great American Cleanup Vicksburg” day May 17.
Community Development Director Victor Gray-Lewis said fliers describing the program, the types of waste that will be accepted at the city’s four disposal sites and an application form were mailed to the churches and homeowners association earlier this week. He said the flier would also appear in a newspaper ad in The Vicksburg Post beginning Wednesday.
People can also get applications to help clean the city at the Community Development Office at 819 South St., or on the city’s website at www.vicksburg.org.
The cleanup day will run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 17.
Waste Management will set out eight 30-ton containers— four in the North Ward and four in the South.
In the North Ward, two dumpsters will be at Pittman Street and North Washington, with two others at Warren Central Junior High School. Two dumpsters will be at the Vicksburg Municipal Airport in the South Ward, and the other two will be at the old Vicksburg Cycle parking lot near Blackburn Motors on North Frontage Road. The dumpsters will be delivered before 7 a.m. May 17 and picked up after 3 p.m.
Warren County dump trucks will be at each site collecting old tires, which will be taken to the county’s waste tire facility on County Lane just off the U.S. 61 North bypass.
City public works employees, community service workers and volunteers from civic and church organizations will also be out, collecting trash along roadsides and on public property that will be delivered for disposal at the disposal sites.
Besides litter, residents can bring bulky items like furniture, white goods such as large appliances, waste tires, trash, limbs and old televisions. Appliances with Freon like refrigerators and freezers, household garbage, batteries, flammable products, acid and paint will not be accepted.
“I see this as an opportunity for people to clean their yards and get rid of any old appliances they’ve got sitting in their yards,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “We want this to be a neighbor-to-neighbor clean up. If you’ve got a truck and your neighbor has some large old appliances like a washing machine or a water heater, offer to take it to the dumpsite for him.”
Mayfield said police would be out tagging abandoned and inoperable vehicles parked on city streets. He said police have already begun tagging the derelict cars. If the cars are not removed from the street within five days, they will be towed, Police Chief Walter Armstrong said.
“If you have a vehicle that’s not working, you need to get it off the street,” Mayfield said. “If your vehicle is tagged and you remove the tag, you could be charged for doing that.
“The police have called that vehicle in to 911 and they have a record of it and where it is. The only way you can remove that tag is if you fix the car. That doesn’t mean putting air in the tires or turning it around (in the street). It means you can get in the car, turn the key and fire it up,” Mayfield said.

 

On the agenda

Meeting Friday, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen:
• Approved a $78,955 bid from Custom Truck and Body Works of Woodbury, Ga., to remount a new module on a fire department emergency truck.
• Swore in Josie Mayfield Hudson as judge pro tem. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, who is related to Hudson, recused himself from voting on the appointment.
• Heard updates from the police and fire departments and the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.
• Approved paying $500 for an ad for the 39th Annual Vicksburg Homecoming, July 3 to 6.
• Approved a $100 ad for the I Can Fly Ministries annual arts conference commemorative booklet.
• Approved $500 for ads on River 101.3, KHits 104.5 and 92.7 “The Touch” promoting the city’s July 4 celebration.
• Re-appointed Anita Collins to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
• Authorized Mayor George Flaggs Jr. to sign an amendment to a lease purchase agreement for water meters with Trustmark Bank. Board Attorney Nancy Thomas said the original agreement exceeded the state-mandated 15 years by several months.
• Approved a resolution to apply for a $3,000 grant for the Mayor’s Health Council Program. The program sponsors health and nutrition education programs. The grant requires no match, grants coordinator Marcia Weaver said.
• Held a public hearing on the city’s application for a $100,000 Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries Land and Water Conservation Grant to build two tennis courts at Halls Ferry Park. There was no opposition.
• Adopted the following budget amendments: transferred $95,801.51 from the general fund grants account to the police department, and transferred $15,000 from the general fund grant account to the fire department.
The money for the police department is from a grant for wireless video cameras in cars and laptop computers for electronic tickets. The money to the fire department is a grant form the Central Mississippi Trauma Region for ambulance computers for providing patient information to the Mississippi Department of Health.
• Authorized Community Development Director Victor Gray-Lewis to clear the following properties: a lot on Fillmore Street, 1612 Poplar St., lot on Fillmore Street, 1220 Fillmore St., and a lot on Valley Street.
• Declared the badge of retired fire department Capt. Karl Minor surplus property for sale to him.
• Approved adding David Kelly of the water department and Tirosky Hill and Anthony Gaines of the gas department to the city employee driving list.