04-18-09 - 1:02 p.m. - Too many. Too much. Too many felled trees, too many shrubs, too much cost.
Columbia County Solid Waste employees are working overtime to address the ever-growing pile of tree limbs and shrubs brought to the county’s Solid Waste Station in Greenport. And the mountainous pile of once green forest products will end up costing taxpayers a lot of “green.” Whether those costs will be borne solely by Columbia County taxpayers or whether taxpayers across the country will help ease the costs through Federal Emergency Management Agency aid has yet to be determined.
Solid Waste Department Director Jolene Race said on Tuesday that she was filling out applications for receive federal aid to defray the costs associated with chipping the monstrous pile of vegetation at the transfer station. Columbia County, she said, pays a contactor between $10,000 and $12,000 to spend three days chipping trees and shrubs and removing the mulch from the Greenport transfer station. In a typical year, that is a one-time expense, however, as a result of the December ice storm, the county is expecting to incur that cost as many as five times this year. |
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"We just had them come in two weeks ago, and I’m looking at doing it again in early May," Race said. "We are getting inundated."
The county accepts free of charge brush, tree limbs, grass cuttings, and leaves at the Newman Road transfer station. The practice has been in place since the advent of the transfer station system in the county, and until about three years ago, county workers handled the chipping and mulching of the debris and, at times, even allowed residents to have the mulch for free.
Race said that practice went by the wayside as the cost of the equipment—which she called “million dollar machinery”—and staff time became too great. The county now solicits bids and awards contracts for the work. Race said the current contract pays a contractor $10,000 to $12,000 fee each time the debris is chipped and allows the contractor to keep the mulch.
According to Race, the mulch is “beautiful material. There’s no plastic in it. It’s great.” Based on the quality of the resultant mulch and the cost of hiring someone to produce it, Race said the county will reexamine the program when the current contract is over to see if it can be done differently. “It’s something we have to look at,” said Race.
In the meantime, there may be no letup in the caravan of trucks, wagons, and cars bringing felled trees and brush to the transfer station. On a recent trip through the back roads of Austerlitz, Hillsdale, Claverack, and Taghkanic, this writer saw yards and forested areas still filled with debris from the ice storm. Added Race, “I’ve never seen so many fallen trees. It’s amazing.”
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