The contractor picking up limbs and other ice storm debris in Tallahatchie County is making only one pass along roads and highways.
“It’s one pass only picking up debris,” said Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors President and District 2 Supervisor Johnny Goodwin.
County residents who live on state highways 32 and 35, and U.S. Highway 49, are especially encouraged to get their debris out to the roadside as quickly as possible.
Goodwin said once the grapple trucks have picked up along those highways, they will not double back or stop to pick up debris placed there after their initial pass, even if they travel that same route to access other locations.
Southern Disaster Recovery (SDR) is the primary county contractor, Goodwin noted. Pride Contracting Inc. is the SDR subcontractor providing and operating the grapple trucks for pickup.
The same contractual arrangement exists in the city of Charleston, where debris collection has been ongoing for about two weeks.
Both agreements were signed on a 30-day emergency basis, but Goodwin said he expects the county will continue with the same arrangement even after advertising and accepting bids for extended contracts that are to be opened March 13.
“I think you can find ways to keep the contractor you have if everything is fine and going good and they’re making headway,” he said.
Goodwin said county supervisors initially asked that debris removal crews pick up along highways first but learned that was not possible until a memorandum of understanding could be later signed with the Mississippi Department of Transportation to allow the private contractor to work along highways.
So, crews were asked to start picking up debris along roads in northeastern Tallahatchie County instead.
“That part of the county probably was affected more than any other part of the county,” Goodwin noted. “It seemed to get a little heavier out that way.”
However, the supervisor stressed that the entire hill section is being given priority for pickup over the Delta areas of the county.
“They will do everything from Highway 35 back east before they do anything in the Delta, because there is certainly more debris here than in the Delta, where there’s not as much trees and foliage,” he said.
Goodwin said residents are asked to place debris where grapple trucks can reach it from the right of way.
“Just a safe distance, several feet off the road, just so they can access it from county roads and state highways.”
In addition to debris removal, Goodwin said crews with bucket trucks are cutting off hanging limbs.
“They are cutting what they call leaners and hangers,” he noted. “If a tree is leaning over 30% [30 degrees] toward the right of way or the road, they cut it, too, and then they get the dangerous hangers that will eventually fall if something is not done.”
