Cole County crews to pick up, burn vegetative debris

Sally Ince/News TribuneA Public Works crew uses a bulldozer to pile burning vegetative debris Tuesday on a county lot near Mt. Carmel Road in Eugene. Crews had picked up 180 dump truck loads of woody debris as of Tuesday morning, but are not currently collecting any household debris or construction debris.
Sally Ince/News TribuneA Public Works crew uses a bulldozer to pile burning vegetative debris Tuesday on a county lot near Mt. Carmel Road in Eugene. Crews had picked up 180 dump truck loads of woody debris as of Tuesday morning, but are not currently collecting any household debris or construction debris.

Cole County crews will continue to pick up vegetative debris such as trees and brush from last week's tornado that is placed beside county-maintained roadways.

Public Works Director Larry Benz said during the County Commission's meeting Tuesday that crews had begun clearing wooded debris Friday and Saturday and started again Tuesday morning.

"We want to emphasize this is only on the right-of-way of county-maintained roads," Benz said. "This does not include state-maintained letter routes."

Benz said they had worked with a landowner next to a county lot in Eugene at Redfield Golf Course to be able to burn the vegetative debris collected.

Benz said they had picked up 180 dump truck loads of woody debris as of Tuesday morning.

They are not taking household debris or construction debris from private property, Benz said, mainly due to the cost to haul the items to the landfill.

"Republic Services, which operates the landfill, would not want to wait for us to potentially get reimbursed from the federal government to help pay our costs, so the money would have to come from somewhere, and I don't think our department has the funds to absorb that cost," Benz said. "Right now, the disposal rate for Republic at the landfill is $61.40 per ton, and on June 1 the rate will go to $63.25."

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is lifting burn regulations at this time to help in the removal of debris, Benz said. This includes woody material, conventional lumber as well as plywood, but things like siding, insulation and roofing may not be burnt.

Jefferson City announced last week that it had contracted with Twehous Excavating to provide a drop-off location for city residents' vegetative debris at 2619 N. Shamrock Road. That facility is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The Missouri Department of Transportation announced Tuesday it would picking up debris from state-maintained routes.

MoDOT will focus on picking up materials such as trees, branches, brush, building insulation, siding and roofing material.

MoDOT Central District Engineer David Silvester said there is no set deadline for having all the debris picked up but it will be an ongoing effort over the next several weeks as flooding continues throughout the area.