Cleanup continues
Oklahoma County disposes of damage
Oklahoma County disposes of damage

Comments Comment on this article11

By Augie Frost
Published: December 28, 2007

County Commissioner Ray Vaughn stood near the fire Thursday wearing a pair of boots, jeans and a warm coat, and joked that he wanted some hot cocoa.

Featured Video

Advertisement

But this was no campfire. Rather, it was a fire pit larger than a dump truck, full of burning coals and broken tree limbs.

Load after load of tree limbs that snapped during the recent ice storm were hauled to the rural location near Indian Meridian Road and Coffee Creek Road, in an unincorporated area of the county.

By about 2 p.m. Thursday, more than 150 truck loads, or about 600 tons, of debris had been moved to the site from county wards 1 and 3.

"It's saving the county a substantial amount of money in disposing of it ourselves,” said Vaughn, who represents Ward 3. "It's saving a lot of landfill space also.”

The other option was to contract private firms to do the cleanup for the county, he said. He could not speculate on how much money that would cost.

‘Helping them clean up'
The county is helping dispose of tree limbs and debris in unincorporated areas of eastern Oklahoma County and several small towns such as Arcadia and Luther.

"Luther got hit really bad,” Vaughn said. "There's a pecan orchard there that was just devastated. We're helping them clean up.”

By today, the county expects to have hauled an additional 150 truck loads to be burned. The giant hole is expected to be full of ash when the cleanup is complete.

An air blower was set up to produce a swifter burn, he said.

The effort began Wednesday. The crews covered the inferno before quitting Thursday night and will resume burning this morning and likely continue into next week.


 

Related Topics: Economic Issues, Economic Development, Rural Development

Toolbar sponsored by: David Stanley Ford
Ads by Yahoo!

Hugh Downs Reports:
Natural discovery lowers high blood pressure and cuts artery plaque.
www.bottomlinesecrets.com
Young Father Makes It Big
From Corporate Burnout To 2-3hrs A Day & Multiple 6 Figures At Home.
www.thekeytofinancialfreedom.com

shareView All

Buzz Up!


Leave a Comment

Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online

Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.


Log in below or sign up (it's free).





What happened to using it as mulch for the community as was previously said was going to happen?
Carrie, Choctaw - Dec 31, 2007 at 8:01 am
LOL. No need. The kids involved can't read anyway. Just reuse them as door stops.
James, Oklahoma City - Dec 28, 2007 at 7:28 pm
James how else can we burn all those satanic books if we don't have big bonfires ?
mister, bogata - Dec 28, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I do have one small bit of feedback for the city government folks. I think it's time to take this as a learning experience and re-evaluate future disposal processes. Burning, from my perspective, is how we did things when the OKC metro was a smaller community. We all have pushed hard to become a large metropolitan city, but I feel the management mechanics have remained "Small town". We've been reminded more lately that we've got to bring some things up to speed. Utilities, Police, Fire, traffic, and especially disaster planning, need to be matched to what our city is now, not what it used to be. Burning might work for a population of 100K, but it might not be appropriate for 1,000,000+ (census 2000). I just think if we are going to be a large metropolitan city, we need to start taking the responsibility that goes with it. Mulching machines are a good example. Yes, they are expensive, but I think they go with the territory of a large city.
James, Oklahoma City - Dec 28, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Craig, thanks for the excellent words and taking the time to tell folks the details. You folks are doing some heroic work. I've heard you folks are working through many "gotchas" within many organizations to make this happen (FEMA, EPA, DoD, State of OK). Thanks!!!
James, Oklahoma City - Dec 28, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Craig Rocks by the way.
Jeff, Mustang - Dec 28, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Jeff
When is clean-up going to begin for Edmond? Also I have gone through some piles and took the bigger logs and chopped them up for firewood. It's great wood.
Jeff, Edmond - Dec 28, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Jeff
All I can say is around this area there hasn't been much in the way of debris removal. Wonder how the greenies are reacting to the massive carbon emission from all those burning trees. They should be culling the piles for firewood and offer that to households that still use it for heating.
Doug, Midwest City - Dec 28, 2007 at 11:00 am
Report as inappropriate or
Ignore Doug
The orchard probably belongs to a county commisioner. No telling what these scam artists/ public servants will try to get away with under the guise of " disaster declarations" and FEMA reimbursement. They always feather their own nests first.
mister, bogata - Dec 28, 2007 at 10:09 am
If they are helping to clean up the pecan orchard, I hope they are helping all the citizens clean up their private property.
Margaret, Holdenville - Dec 28, 2007 at 8:25 am
I am the superintendent for the other district in Oklahoma County that is mentioned in this story. We began to plan for the removal and disposal of the debris left by the ice storm of Dec. 9-11 as it was occuring. The county met to discuss the options and had concurred that we should share disposal sites and share with the responsibility to remove and dispose as we decided where these sites would be located. We also began to secure equipment that would be needed to complete these operations. We are highway districts not debris response districts. Some of our equipment would suffice for the operation but other equipment would be needed. We also recognized that due to the severity and the emergency declaration, we needed to expect to keep proper documentation that would allow us to submit our expenses if this emergency was later declared a desaster, it was. FEMA reimburses 75% of dollars expended in the clean up of disaster debris. The state will also reimburse up to 12.5% for the clean up and the local part will be 12.5%. FEMA declarations have different classifications which will determine the level of reimbursements and what is covered. This disaster declaration covers all the areas expected to be encountered with the cleanup and disposal.
District #1 secured 4 locations that were strategically located within our district to make sure that our efforts were effecient and timely. We also secured two ventilators or air curtains and other equipment required for removal of the debris. The site in your story was secured and properly permited by district 1 and the vetilator in your story was offered to district 3 as we had reserved it days earlier. We are working in unincorporated Oklahoma county, but also have authority in the smaller communities as mentioned in your story. We have Spencer, Nicoma Park, Jones, Forest Park, Luther, and Lake Aluma in our district. We have communicated with each of these jurisdictions and have offered and are currently serving in some capacity with assistance to these areas. we also have spoken to Choctaw and are working with their authorities to lend assistance as well.
We began our removal operations on December 17th, with disposal (burning) starting on Dec. 19th. and have continued and are currently working on this operation.
To date District #1 has removed and dispose of over 4000 cy of material at a cost competitive to that being charged by outside contractors.
Craig H. - Dec 28, 2007 at 8:18 am

    News Photo Galleriesview all