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Spring is approaching and it’s time for Jessamine County’s annual county-wide cleanup. 

 

The county-wide cleanup is an event that offers residents free disposal of residential debris at two drop-off locations: the first is at the Jessamine County Road Department in Nicholasville at 400 Park Drive or in Wilmore at 305 West Linden St. 

 

These sites will be open from Saturday, March 23 to Saturday, March 30, from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will be closed on Sunday, March 24.

 

The types of debris accepted at the designated dumping sites must follow certain restrictions: Absolutely no commercial debris such as shingles, drywall, etc. Bricks, concrete blocks, asphalt, wet paint, dirt, normal household waste such as daily trash and food garbage, storm brush and tires are also unacceptable items and will not be accepted. There is no free disposal of these debris.

 

Shingles, drywall, commercial debris and tires can be brought to the Jessamine County Convenience Center, 123 Hendren Way, Nicholasville, Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and closed on Saturdays. Charges will be at the normal rate.

 

Because of safety reasons, there will be no curbside pickup this year. Jessamine County Judge-Executive David West said this is for a few different reasons. 

 

“In the past couple of years, we started getting a lot of complaints that our equipment was out on the road- the backhoes, the loaders, the dump trucks, and people were veering around them when we were loading, it was causing us dangerous situations. It’s for everybody because we certainly didn’t want to have some type of tragic event where somebody was going around and they either hit one of our personnel or hit another car,” West said.

 

Also, West added that when the county did curbside pickup, individuals from other counties would come to Jessamine to drop their own waste on neighborhood streets to get picked up. 

 

“Obviously we don’t run this for people from other counties. It’s for Jessamine county residents in the city of Nicholasville, the city of Wilmore and Jessamine County,” West said. 

 

West said the county-wide cleanup has been going on for longer than he could remember.

 

“I think years ago, it started as an effort to help the rural people so that they wouldn’t dump trash on their farms or into a sinkhole or something like that,” West said. 

 

The week-long event is seen as an opportunity for spring cleaning.

 

“People clean out their garages, they get rid of their old grill, they might have old vacuum cleaners, and i’m just using these as examples. It’s everything under that sun that people put in their garage, they think they will use– five years later they decide they don’t want to use it. You said it very well, it’s a good opportunity for people to have spring cleaning,” West said.

 

The whole process costs the county $150-200,000 a year for all of the equipment and the disposal fees. But West said the county is “happy to offer the service.”

 

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, a lot of people take advantage of it and we hope that they continue to take advantage of it because the last thing we want is people dumping in different places,” West said.