Ask The Mayor

Q. - How do we get the storm debris removed from our street? I have been promised by the trash pickup that they would get it 2 Fridays ago. That did not happen. Then I was told that it would get picked up last Friday. That did not happen either.

 

I did notice that City of Terrell workers and trash people picked up on Cartwright and Griffith Streets more than once. Could that be where the mayor and place 5 council person live? Circle Drive is so bad that the mold in the piles prevents people from walking the street for exercise.

 

There is not enough emphasis being put on this cleanup. My grass is being killed by the piles.

Answer - You are correct that there has been a brush pickup on part of Griffith and on my street, Cartwright. It is incorrect that either Councilman Thurman or I have requested or received special service. As a matter of fact, I sent away the crew that came to pick up the small pile of brush at my house! I took care of it myself.

 

Here is the latest information as of May 22.

 

The good news is that we have collected from 689 locations. The bad news is we have 800-900 more locations to go. At the current rate we will be collecting brush for 45-60 days more from today.

 

The 800-900 locations all have generally large piles and some are increasing in size. We have so far built a 4000 to 5000 cubic yard pile of storm debris, which represents about 33% of the total that will be collected.

 

IESI, our contractor, is running 2 trucks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of each week. We are using Street, Park, Water, Sewer, and Special Projects departments personnel and equipment to work on this task. At some point we will lose work time from some of these departments when critical needs arise within their primary functions.

 

Citizens who have the means to do so can haul their brush to 2801 East Highway 80 on Fridays from 8:00AM to 5:00PM through June 1.

 

This is unprecedented as far as I know. The City of Terrell is taking every practical step to clean up the storm damage.

 

We know it is a problem and will continue to work as fast as we can.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hal Richards, Mayor