Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Yard Cleanup Fire Suppression topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Community yard-cleanup event yields large brush collection; town to get chipping quotes and consider options
Summary
Bluff’s volunteer yard-cleanup and fire-suppression weekend collected roughly 50 truck/trailer loads of brush. Town staff will obtain chipping quotes, consider buyback or resident pickup options, and decide whether to offer the service as a town program.
Bluff — A volunteer yard-cleanup and brush-burning event over the weekend collected what staff described as nearly 50 truckloads and trailer loads of brush and branches for a town wood bank. Town staff said volunteers, the fire department and partner organizations helped run the event and that the town will obtain chipping quotes to determine next steps.
Event results and next steps
Malia Collins and volunteers reported roughly 50 truck and trailer loads of brush were deposited at the community center staging area by the end of the event. Collins said she met with Hamadu (a chipping company representative) and expected a written quote for chipping the accumulated material and for options to move piles and provide a buyback arrangement.
Options to consider
Town staff explained the chipping vendor may offer a buyback option: the vendor would chip the material, remove it from town and pay for the chipped material (or use it for compost), which would relieve the town of storage and distribution logistics. An alternate model would be for the town to retain chips and provide free or low-cost pickup to residents; councilors expressed concern that charging residents for chip material might create classification or fee issues and preferred either treating the service as a town-provided benefit or outsourcing distribution to the vendor.
Staff also said the town would consider whether to make the cleanup an annual or semiannual event to maintain community defensible space and reduce wildfire risk.
Quote
“We ended up by the end of the weekend...we were close to 50 truckloads and trailer loads of brush and branches and wood to add to the wood bank,” Collins told the council.
Ending
Staff will return with chipping quotes, cost options and recommendations for how the town might distribute chipped material or contract for removal; councilors asked staff to consider making the cleanup a recurring event.
