Cleaning Mother Nature’s mess

The ongoing lightning shows and thunderstorms Plano has experienced recently have been great for the water levels, but bad for yards and streets.

The amounts of debris from yard trimmings to fallen tree trunks have left the Environmental Waste Services Department (EWSD) with loads of extra work and long hours.

Torrence McDonald, environmental waste supervisor, said crews are out on the streets working as hard and fast as possible to clear out all the debris in a timely manner.

In May of last year, the EWSD picked up 2,400 tons of debris. The chain of storms last week has amounted to 1,700 tons of collection from the crews in just one week.

“We run 11 trucks normally, but are running 16 now,” McDonald said. “Crews are working from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. six days a week.”

He said the waste department has received many calls requesting their oversized piles of brush to be picked up. The EWSD has three boom trucks running throughout the city, which assists in picking up the oversized piles that the crew members can’t handle.

“The department has been receptive to the response,” said Robert Smouse, environmental services operations manager. “We started seeing the scope of the damage, and it’s not something that is going to go away in one day.”

He said they city owns two boom trucks but has borrowed a third in an attempt to catch up on the routes.

“We are two and a half days behind on our routes,” Smouse said. “The crews are working extra days and we’ve hired temporary day laborers to help in the process.”

Smouse said the department has laid out a plan that is effective and safe to respond to a situation like this and said he wants to stick to the plan.

“Our guys are doing a tremendous job,” Smouse said. “We are trying to keep ahead compared to the other cities.

Doug Sizemore, division manager for the Dallas sanitation collection department, said Dallas is behind seven days on their routes. He said the crews hauled over 300 loads on Monday and didn’t put a dent in the city.

Crew member Roosevelt Gay said in his 13 years with the EWSD, this has been the toughest two weeks of his career.

“I’m out in the alley by 7 a.m. and load up the truck as fast as I can,” Gay said. “One load weighs about 16,000 pounds and we make about four trips a day.”

The EWSD requires residents to cut up their trimmings in order to expedite loading. Gay said some residents don’t understand the crew can’t pick up loads if they are hazardous.

“I hope residents will continue to be patient because it is going to be a long process,” McDonald said. “We are trying to get there as soon as possible.”

Each crew includes one driver and two crew members. McDonald said they cover 300-400 houses a day.

“The crews have a certain area to cover each day and if they finish early then they’ll help the other crews out,” McDonald said. “We have supervisors getting into the trucks and helping out.”

For information concerning yard trimming collection pick-up go the city of Plano’s Web site at www.plano.gov.

Contact Stephanie Flemmons at sflemmons@acnpapers.com.

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