Storms cause debris debate
By BRIAN SLUPSKI - bslupski@nwherald.com
WOODSTOCK – A weekend of nasty weather left some Woodstock residents with plenty of downed branches, yard waste and a disposal problem.
Woodstock does not pick up the yard waste of private residences. The city has a franchise agreement with Marengo Disposal, but it only takes smaller yard waste – branches 2 inches and smaller in diameter, and less than 4 feet long. That yard waste has to be bagged, and sticks can be bundled together with twine. A sticker for yard waste costs about $1.53.
As for the bigger items, Marengo Disposal does not pick that up.
“I don’t have the capacity to deal with it,” Marengo Disposal General Manager Greg York said. “We’d love to help them, but the EPA does not allow us to put that material in a landfill and it’s too big for the compost site.”
Woodstock resident Susan Richards said she had several large branches down in her yard.
Some are 4 inches in diameter. Some are bigger. All are a problem. Richards said she had asked her family for help – the 61-year-old single woman is not comfortable using a chainsaw – but even if the branches are chopped up, she has to find a way to get rid of them.
“I just feel like the city is way too stingy,” Richards said. “What are we paying such high taxes for?”
Richards said that other communities offered brush pickup. She said such a program would benefit the city as a whole by encouraging residents to maintain and clean up their properties. A brush pickup program also would help older residents who might have trouble dealing with larger debris, she said.
The city posted a statement about the storm and the brush issue on its Web site, www.woodstockil.gov. The Web site says “The City of Woodstock does not offer yard waste disposal services and, as such, residents should contact private landscaping firms for the removal of downed branches and other yard waste.”
Woodstock Director of Public Works John Isbell said the city would pick up brush that fell on city property or in the right-of-way from trees during storms. However, he said residents should not place private brush in the right-of-way for pickup.
“People shouldn’t pile it up and expect somebody to miraculously remove it,” Isbell said.
The Web site also gives residents a deadline to get their brush out of the right-of-way: “Residents have through Sunday, June 28th to have storm debris removed from the public right-of-way.”
Isbell said cost was one factor in the city’s brush pickup policy, but he said another reason was that it was not the city’s responsibility to take brush from trees on private property.
The city does not allow the burning of brush or yard debris.
