Old furniture, commodes and broken vacuum cleaners are items Owensboro residents tend to drop at the curb for the annual Neighborhood Cleanup days.
Overall there are 12 cleanup weekends from March to June. It’s a program by the Owensboro Neighborhood Alliance with the City Sanitation Department. A general neighborhood cleanup is also encouraged.
There's no extra cost to residents, said Adrienne Carrico, executive assistant to the mayor, and the city representative for neighborhood alliances.
“It gives residents an opportunity to get rid of the stuff that's been piling up in their garage, in their attic, just things that have piled up in the storage building, things that they want to get rid of," she said. "It's just a once a year opportunity to put those on the curb and get picked up for free by the sanitation department.”
Unlike the rest of the year, no scheduling call is needed for residents of that particular cleanup weekend location.
Sanitation will pick up junk furniture, appliances, tires and smaller trash items bagged or boxed.
They will not pick up construction debris, yard waste, dirt, paint or any liquids.
Items must be placed at the curb the Friday before the cleanup.
Carrico said without such a program this stuff might just end up piled in people’s yards. She said the city receives complaints all year to this effect.
“If we didn't have this, we would see a lot more couches on front porches or stuff that sits on the curb for months before somebody finally calls it in and gets it picked up,” she said. “So I feel like it does a great job of keeping those big pieces out of sight and in the trash.”
Carrico says the 2025 program netted 248 tons — a record by several thousand tons. While a long-running program, the haul-away tonnage stays fairly high.
Cleanups are starting this weekend in the Hillcrest Neighborhood on March 7th.
Future dates
March 7 – Hillcrest
March 14 – Southeast
March 21- Midtown East
March 28- Old Owensboro
April 11 – Wesleyan Shawnee
April 18 – Northwest
April 25- Apollo Area
May 2 – Dogwood Azalea
May 16 – Dugan Best
June 6 – Shifley-York
June 13- Seven Hills
June 20 – Audubon-Bon Harbor
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate