(Spencer)– Clean up in Spencer from last week’s derecho has entered a new phase. City Manager Kevin Robinson says removal of trees causing a public safety concern has been completed along with removal of right of way tree material debris piles. Now, he says they’re moving into the second phase of operations…
“Phase two will include documenting and GIS mapping all of the stumps that are in the right of way that we’ll need to go back and grind, clear and re-plant and re-seed, then we’re going to inspect any damaged trees that are still left in the right of way as well the public. We did request in the press release for citizens to self-report if you feel like you have a compromised tree. It could be a split, it could be a limb hanging, it could just be a question you have about the integrity of the tree after the storm. Please either call city hall at 712-580-7200 or you can email info@spenceriowacity.com and Park Director Bob Fullhart will be out to inspect your tree. You’ll also notice that on Wednesday at 8:00 pm the East Leach Park temporary tree dump site will be closed, so we’ll remove that material Thursday morning so all materials starting Thursday will need to go out to the north tree dump site.”
Robinson says the onslaught of material being brought to the tree dump sites means grinding operations will be in high gear the rest of the summer and into the fall…
“Public Works estimated that there was four, four and-a-half years worth of tree debris already at the tree site prior to the derecho, so the derecho has accelerated that. You’ll see a big grinding machine out there for quite some time through the fall and the plan is to grind the entire site out there to reduce the amount of waste.”
Robinson says they anticipate the second phase of clean up operations will take two to three weeks.
