Like the proverbial May flowers that arrive following April showers, piles of bulky waste items have sprung up along the sides of streets all over Cheshire.

That's because for the first time in six years, Cheshire is conducting a town-wide collection of items too big to fit in residents' garbage or recycling containers. The Town Council voted last month to spend up to $294,000 to fund the program and Monday is the start of the first of five weeks during which pick-ups of bulky waste and scrap metal are being conducted.

Here's how the collection scheduled works: 

 
        Residents with regular Thursday trash collection will get their bulky waste collected April 14 to 19.  
        Residents with regular Wednesday trash collection will get their bulky waste  collected April 21 to 26.
         Residents with regular Monday trash collection will get their bulky waste collected April 28 to May 3.

         Residents with regular Tuesday trash collection will get their bulky waste collected May 5 to 10. 

        Residents with regular Friday trash collection will get their bulky waste collected May 12 to 17.

  
         Collection will take place Monday through Saturday of each week.  All acceptable bulky waste should be placed near the curb by the Sunday evening of the scheduled pick up week.
         A list of items that will and won't be collected from curbside is available on the town's web site.