By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

This year’s annual Hays Alley Cleanup was a big one, according to Solid Waste Supervisor Marvin Honas.

The 2014 cleanup netted 809,000 pounds of unwanted stuff, everything from old couches to concrete blocks to refrigerators and tree limbs.  Items not collected in the normal refuse are picked up and hauled off to the Ellis County Landfill using a variety of city trucks, tractors and trailers. There’s no cost to Hays residential customers.

The 2013 alley collection total was 760,000 pounds.

“That’s considerably more than last year. That’s why we it took us about a day and half longer that last year’s cleanup,” said Honas.

“It’s a very successful program. We picked up a whole lot of stuff.”

Honas isn’t sure why this year was bigger than usual.

“We try to figure that out. Nothing special was going on–it just runs in a kind of cycle. Maybe people accumulate for four or five years and finally put it out, or something of that nature,” he theorized. “We’re not quite sure.”

Honas said the largest category increases were in Construction and Demolition and Municipal. City employees from several departments worked the cleanup from Oct.27 to Nov. 5.