Beginning sometime next month, residents will be able to contact the City of Ripon for home curbside trash pickup.
Ripon City Council on Tuesday approved the Residential Large Item Pick-up Program.
With that, folks will now have from May to September to call the Public Works Department to schedule a one-time only pickup of large unwanted items that’s on the acceptable list.
Included are furniture, mattresses, washers, exercise equipment and lawn mowers (must be drained of all oil and gas).
The non-acceptable items will consist of refrigerators, air conditioning units, hot tubs, glass items, batteries, dead animals, televisions, and computers, to name a few.
Vice Mayor Michael Restuccia would like to see an ordinance that calls for stiff fines for those busted for illegal dumping.
Councilman Leo Zuber said otherwise.
“Under the old system —- maybe,” he added. “This new ordinance negates that process.”
Director of Public Works Ted Johnston noted that the old system in place for the past 15 years had caused so much problems that changes were necessary in replacing the curbside spring clean-up program.
Complaints included people sifting through the large trash items — loose garbage and non-acceptable items were also part of the problem —front-yard thefts and untidiness along the city streets.
Under the new program, residents will be required to place their trash items on the curb in a manner that does not obstruct pedestrians or vehicle traffic.
Public works would plan to set aside two days each month for the scheduled pick-ups.
In addition, they’ll begin their outreach efforts to residents, notifying them on changes to the program.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com.