With Estevan no longer interested in competing for the Golden Garbage Can, the City of Weyburn will be holding its own clean-up campaign again in 2005.

This year, however, will see five areas of the city competing with each other to see who has improved the most for cleanliness from 2004.

Last year, five zones within the City of Weyburn competed to see which was the most clean. Zone 3, which covers the north side of Weyburn up to Highway 13 and 16th Street, was chosen as the winner.

The other zones were as follows: Zone 1, which covered South Hill; Zone 2, which covered the blocks surrounding the downtown, excluding the downtown itself; Zone 4, which covered the blocks between Zone 2 and Zone 5; and Zone 5, which covered the eastern portion of Weyburn, separated from the other sections by 16th Street.

The map is the same this year. However, instead of judging which is the cleanest, this year's winner will be chosen on improvements made to overall cleanliness, such as in back yards, back lanes and so on.

Judges will use the notes left over from last year to determine which area has improved the most. The judging is tentatively set for the week of June 6.

For residents in the area that is chosen as the most improved, there is not only the prestige of winning, but there is also the opportunity to win prizes.

The prizes will be similar to last year, with a lot of emphasis on yard and lawn maintenance. Some winners will be chosen randomly, but some prizes will be handed out to residents who have received clean-up notices and have actually cleaned up.

The campaign kicked off in late April. Area chairmen have been going out and handing out notices for yards and back lanes that could use cleaning up.

The theme for this year's campaign is "Communities in Bloom," in keeping with Weyburn's participation in the national Communities in Bloom contest.

The city is requesting that residents, when planning their yards, use red as their dominant colour.

A number of features from the 2004 contest will carry over this year. For example, the City will again be sending out free drop-off coupons for the landfill, instead of holding free drop-off days.

The change was a vast improvement, as it cut down on the heavy traffic going out to the landfill during the drop-off days, and prevented widespread abuse of the free drop-offs.

These coupons have already been printed and were sent out last week.

Again, the Weyburn Minor Ball system will be pitching in by holding their own clean-up campaign during the week of May 23-28.

Teams are assigned an area and asked to pick up trash as part of the campaign. They can do it any time during the week, though most will do their clean-up on Saturday, May 28, which coincides with the start of the Weyburn Spring Classic.

As with every year, the Chamber of Commerce will also be holding its clean business judging contest in conjunction with the city clean-up.

Pre-judging took place a couple weeks ago, and the actual judging will be close to the city's own campaign.

The City of Weyburn will also be sponsoring a clean-up campaign poster contest among local schools.