Ripon’s Spring Cleanup is the first two weeks of May.

It is also a chance for many out-of-towners with pickup trucks to stock up for their weekend flea market booths.

The city’s collection event is set for May 2 to May 12, however many put their discards out weeks before causing unsightly neighborhoods in all too many cases.  Last Saturday morning was a good example when scores of pickups entered Ripon from the freeway off ramps and began scouting for the treasures they knew they would find left out in front of Ripon homes.

One man was seen parking his truck in the middle of the street when he spied a monitor left in an already picked over pile.  Another stopped for a swimming pool slide complete with a six foot ladder.  He took the time to get out his tool set and unbolt the ladder from the slide before putting it into the back of his truck.

While most neighborhoods do not have a Homeowners’ Associations, there are three that do:  Tiffany Estates, Fairway Oaks and Chesapeake Landing.  In those residential areas a lone pickup sites were the only ones that are allowed to be used – an effort to keep their neighborhoods clean and orderly during the cleanup.

Items that are acceptable include patio furniture, barbecues, car and pickup tires, carpet remnants smaller than five feet square, couches and sofas, dishwashers and microwaves, doors, dresses and mattresses, fire extinguishers, lawn mowers, tables, chairs, televisions, computer monitors, toilets, sinks, tubs, vehicle rims, washers, dryers water softeners and water heaters.

Refrigerators and freezers are not acceptable.  Neither are bags of loose trash, glass items such as mirrors and shower doors, hot tubs, spas, dead animals, commercial business material, truck or tractor tires, large auto parts, household hazardous waste, paint, motor oil, concrete, asphalt, lumber, cardboard, newspapers and florescent light bulbs.

City crews are leaving the unacceptable items put out on the street are being tagged and left for the resident’s disposal – noting they will be responsible for cleaning up any remaining debris.

Discarded items will not be picked up if they are put curbside after the stated dates in their information sheet.