PEA RIDGE — “It’s amazing what some people think is trash and somebody else thinks it’s not,” Pea Ridge Mayor Jackie Crabtree said, recalling various items dropped off at the city cleanup.

“When we started, we were just trying to provide a city service to the citizens so they could have a place to take a lot of things. There was no place to take stuff.

“Basically, that’s were it started. We heard from several citizens over a period of time,” the mayor said.

Crabtree said there were properties in the city that were unsightly and needed to be cleaned up to meet city ordinances, but the property owners said there was no where for them to take their trash.

“The county has a regular clean up, too. Basically this is a need for us to take care of our citizens,” Crabtree said.

In the early years, there were times when city employees picked the items up from the curb, but Crabtree said that was unfeasible. The city’s Street Department employees work the cleanup twice a year.

The items are disposed into dumpsters with certain items — like tires and paint — separated. Metal items are placed in specific bins and are sold to Rogers Iron and Metal.

“Roll Off takes care of ours, it goes to a transfer station in Lowell,” Crabtree said. “The paint goes through household hazardous waste in Rogers.”

Crabtree said he receives appreciate responses from community residents.

“They tell us they really appreciate this, that they didn’t have any other place to go. They’re really courteous and ap preciative.

“It provides something that helps us keep our community cleaned up and get rid of some things that otherwise people just don’t have a chance to,” Crabtree said.

News, Pages 1 on 10/07/2009