Spring clean

If you have broken appliances or other junk that’s too big for the trash, getting rid of it is about to be as easy as moving out to the side of the road — as long as you do it next week, that is.

Cullman city officials are reminding residents that Monday, March 29 marks the start of the city’s annual spring cleanup, a week when city sanitation crews will haul bigger-than-normal items away for free. Crews will pick up the big stuff separately from their regular routes all throughout next week. In order to ensure your big trash does the disappearing act, residents must have the large items they want hauled away set out by their curbsides on Monday morning.

The free service applies to all kinds of oversized household things, including unwanted appliances, furniture, mattresses, and similar large items. Excluded from the pickup are items like rocks, dirt, bricks, concrete, construction materials, hazard materials, and tires — so don’t set those out.

Johnny Cook, the Cullman City Council’s liaison for public works, reminded residents at the council’s regular meeting Monday that the sanitation department’s typical weekly pass to collect limbs and leaves won’t occur next week, as crews focus instead on carrying away the spring cleanup items.

City sanitation customers with questions about the cleanup should contact the City of Cullman Sanitation Department at 256-737-7560 or via email at cityhall@cullmanal.gov.

In other business at its regular meeting Monday, the city council:

• Awarded a bid of $158,413.25 to The Entertainment Group, LLC (UNION Aqua Parks) for an inflatable aqua park to be installed at the Palomino RV Resort.
• Awarded a bid of $107,696 to J.H. Wright & Associates for the installation of the Highpoint Subdivision Prepackage Pump Station.
• Enacted an ordinance to establish a pretrial diversion program for the City’s municipal court.
• Amended the city’s employment position control detail to accommodate a salary incentive for certain workers who obtain certification as a diesel mechanic.
• Approved a special event request from Lauren Estes for a Bataan Death Walk long distance athletic event on city streets for Saturday, April 10 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.
• Approved a special event request from Gary Cornelius of Relay for Life for a drive-through luminary bag display and survivor parade for local cancer survivors, to be held in the Warehouse District on Friday, May 7 at 8:30 p.m.
• Approved a special event request from Kyle Elam for a wedding at the Festhalle on April 10, 2021 at 7 p.m.
• Took no action on, and did not approve, a special event request from Stevie Whitney of O-Baby to close the Warehouse District block for a wedding on Saturday, April 10, 2021 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.
• Took no action on, and did not approve, a special event request from Stevie Whitney of O-Baby to close the Warehouse District block for a wedding on Saturday, May 15, 2021 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. Council members expressed concerns over public safety, as well as the potential for approving street closure requests for non-public events could set a precedent for an inundation of similar requests in the future.
• Noted council member David Moss’ reappointment of Beverly Wilkerson to the board of the Cullman County Center for the Developmentally Disabled.
• Noted mayor Woody Jacobs’ appointment of Jeb Williamson to the board of the Cullman Housing Authority.