File photo

Students from Glenwood High School volunteered one Saturday morning to participate in 2012 clean-up activities in New Boston. Pictured, left to right, are Ashley Adkins, Brianna Gunnell and Hannah Bender. The 2013 New Boston clean-up is May 4.

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Ryan Scott Ottney

PDT Staff Writer

Spring weather means spring cleaning and the Village of New Boston is getting into the spirit with its bi-annual Clean-Up Day on May 4.

“It’s just a real good thing to try to keep the village clean. Already this year we’ve had two days that we’ve went out and picked up trash at the side of the road,” Village Administrator Steve Hamilton said. “We want business to come here and say, ‘this little village is clean and they want to keep it clean.’ We want to attract businesses when they come here.”

Hosting clean-up days twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall — the village provides large dumpsters near the New Boston Police and Fire departments for village residents to dispose of those old, unwanted items cluttering up the house. Hazardous or toxic materials will not be accepted. That included refrigerators, batteries, televisions, computers, gasoline containers or paint cans.

The village will purchase the dumpsters with the help of a $1,000 reimbursement grant from Dan Palmer and the Solid Waste Management District. Bulldog Containers of Wheelersburg will deliver four large dumpsters to New Boston on Friday, May 3, and will be available to local residents until Monday, May 6. Volunteers will only be available at the dump site for the Clean-Up Day on Saturday, May 4.

Hamilton said gloves and trash bags will also be available that day for volunteers who want to pick up trash around the village. He said volunteer groups will participate from Genesis Home Medical and Interim Health, Daymar College, Wal-mart and other New Boston businesses and organizations.

“If there are elderly people or handicapped people that can’t get down here, they need to call (village offices at 740-456-4103) if they’ve got stuff and they need help to get rid of it. We will gladly get our guys together to go out and take care of those people,” Hamilton said.

He said it was nice to see so many so many volunteers taking pride in their community.

“If it wasn’t for the volunteers we get, we could never do it with the employees we have,” Hamilton said. “They are taking pride in their community, and that’s what we want. We want people to take pride in living here in New Boston and knowing that we are doing everything we can on our part to help the litter control.”

Hamilton said unwanted prescription medication can also be safely dumped at the New Boston Police Department year-round, and the village street sweeper will begin running next week.

Ryan Scott Ottney may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 287, or rottney@civitasmedia.com. For breaking news, follow Ryan on Twitter @PDTwriter.