With a sudden midwinter warm spell comes the urge to be outside and start cleaning up your yard. But Sterling city officials are warning residents against pushing yard waste into the street.

“In my neighborhood alone I had three instances where I saw people blowing yard waste out into the street,” Alderman at Large Jim Wise said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Yard waste pickup in Sterling resumes April 6 and will be the same day as the garbage and recycling pickup, Sterling City Clerk Teri Sathoff told the council.

Until then, Sterling Public Works Superintendent Brad Schrader said, anyone who sees yard waste being pushed into the street should call the Office of Building and Zoning and let them know the address of the offender. '

From December through March, the city permits residents to drop off yard waste at the Public Works Department at 1605 Ave. L in Sterling. Residents wishing to drop off yard waste should call (815) 632-6657 for instructions.

“We’d love to start running the street sweepers but there’s salt on the roads and we don’t want to run that through the machines,” Schrader said.

According to information posted on the city’s website, yard waste is considered “grass clippings, dead flowers, weeds, brush, and tree limbs. Rocks, sod, earth, garden vegetables, fruit, straw and hay are not considered yard waste.”