Community Corner

Alternate Brush Removal Plan Should Save Town Thousands

The brush is piled high in Durham but town officials are making every effort to keep costs down.

 

Durham officials are moving ahead with a plan that could save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars in cleanup costs following the Oct. 29 nor'easter that left behind an unprecedented amount of debris.

While some details of the plan are still being worked out, including exactly when brush removal will begin and where the debris will be stockpiled, the Board of Selectman on Monday afternoon approved a proposal submitted by Public Works Director Kurt Bober and Finance Director Mary Jane Malavasi that will cost the town between $120,000 to $154,000 (estimated).

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"We knew right from the beginning that it was going to be very much different than any other pick-up that we've done ... maybe even beyond our capacity," First Selectman Laura Francis said during a special meeting to deal with the issue.

Francis said the town had gone back to the drawing board after receiving a quote from state approved contractors in the amount of nearly $600,000 for a "comprehensive plan" to remove and dispose of the debris left behind by the storm.

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While 75 percent of that cost would be eligible for reimbursement from FEMA, Francis and other town officials agreed that it would be less expensive for the town to hire its own contractors to complete the work.

"25 percent of $600,000 is still quite a bit of money," Francis said.

Under the town's plan, which is also eligible for up to 75 percent reimbursement from FEMA, town crews would work in tandem with outside contractors in three different phases of cleanup: brush pickup, chipping and the removal of "hangers and leaners," or trees that remain compromised due to the storm.

“We know that if we don’t get those hangers and leaners down, we’re going to have a problem this winter,” said Francis.

While officials indicated the work could begin as early as next week, Malavasi said the town first had to seek quotes from private contractors to haul the brush away.

The plan will be presented to the Board of Finance during its regularly scheduled meeting next month as well, according to Malavasi.

"I'm hoping we can get this done in three weeks time," explained Bober, who said hiring outside contractors would not only be less costly but would reduce some of the burden on his staff

"Public Works is really, really busy. It's our busy time of year, we've got winter coming, we've got a building project. It would pretty hard to stretch our crews thin to do all that work," he said.

"I have gone through this several times. If we were picking up the brush as a road crew [FEMA] would not pay for our wages during the day, but they would pay for our overtime wages. We need to hire an outside workforce to do the work that we need done."

Under the plan, Bober said two crews will handle brush pick-up for most of the town, while a third crew will actually chip debris on site in isolated areas of town difficult to reach with large equipment.

Francis is encouraging residents to bring their brush to the Transfer Station, if they are able to. She said there are no restrictions on the size of the debris, as long as it is "storm related."

Francis planned to meet Tuesday with FEMA officials to begin the review and reimbursement process from the Oct. 29 storm.

"FEMA gives us six months to do emergency work, so it will be done within the next six months. Our hope is to do it much, much sooner than that," Francis said.


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