Orangetown Highway Dept. Requests Permission to Hire Contractors [VIDEO]

The Oct. 29 snow storm forced the Orangetown Highway Department to push back the leaf collection that was scheduled to begin Oct. 31 until Nov. 14.

That is because all of the trees and branches that fell Saturday must be cleared first. Orangetown Highway Superintendent James Dean said his department needs help to get that done in time to start the leaf collection on the 14th.

Dean is estimating that the highway department will end up colleting at least 15,000 cubic yards of trees and brush to complete the clean-up from the snow storm that hit the area Oct. 29. By way of comparison, the Orangetown Highway Department picked up approximately 4,000 cubic yards of trees and brush in the two weeks after Hurricane Irene.

"This volume of material will take our entire crew and equipment five to six weeks to complete," Dean wrote in a memo to the Orangetown Town Council. "Unfortunately, because we are committed to our leaf removal program, it will be impossible to wait six weeks to begin leaf pick-up and expect the program to be done before February 2012."

To complete the work on time, Dean asked the Orangetown Town Council to authorize the spending of $150,000 to hire private contractors to assist in tree and brush removal. The cost would pay for three local crews, which have the equipment and manpower to do the job, at approximately $5,000 per day each for 10 working days.

Dean said he had rates worked out with the contractors before the emergency, which helps to keep the cost down. He periodically takes bids on such work for just such situations.

"This tyupe of arrangement if acceptable to FEMA, but we're not sure if thewere will be FEMA money," Dean said.

Orangetown Director of Finance Charlie Richardson said that there is some money in a highway fund put aside for brush, weeds and snow that would cover some of the $150,000, but the town would have to dip into the fund balance for the rest.

Dean is planning to have the contractors start Thursday. He asked the board to vote on a resolution approving the expenditure at Tuesday's workshop meeting, but the board chose to put the measure on the agenda for its meeting Nov. 9. Dean will be able to go ahead with bringing in the crews as planned.

The department cannot collect the trees and brush together with the leaves and is asking the public to put only the trees and brush on their property close to the road for collection at this time.

Dean said that 111 streets in Orangetown were impacted by falling trees and branches, though the list was down to 10 closed streets as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, a number that should drop further Wednesday morning.