It is time for Beeville residents to get the rakes, wheelbarrows, trailers and pickup beds ready for the city’s annual City-Wide Spring Clean event.

This year the event will take place on Saturday, April 9, at the city collection station at 200 S. Jackson St.

The gates will open at 8 a.m. with city employees inside the grounds to help residents unload trash and rubbish that is not normally picked up at curb side.

The station will be open until 5 p.m. that day.

The only requirement is for those showing up to have a current, paid water bill stub to prove they are city residents.

Organizer Ronald “Buddy” Hardy, the city’s assistant code compliance official, said the search is on now for volunteer groups to help collect rubbish on properties where elderly and disabled people live.

But Hardy also encouraged neighbors of the elderly and disabled to help out where possible by helping them to gather discarded items around their yard and house and either get them to the curb or go ahead and take them to the collection station on that Saturday.

The annual cleanup event has been popular and it has helped to bring people together.

Hardy said last year’s event was not as successful as it was in earlier years because the weather turned cold and wet.

Not many volunteers showed up to help, he said.

So far, this year looks promising if the weather holds.

Anyone who has any questions or any group which would like to help out by volunteering may contact Hardy at City Hall at 358-4641.