So Far, Brush Pickup Costs Town Little

Using a little less extra help than originally planned, three town crews began the curbside brush pickup this week, Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner said.

Crews started on some of the streets hit hardest by the October storm, such as Dyer, Gildersleeve and Thayer avenues.

Recently, selectmen approved up to $22,720 for curbside pickup, but so far the town has spent little of it, Skinner said.

The town is renting an industrial chipper for two weeks at a cost of $2,440.

The approval also included as much as $4,800 for four temporary laborers for two weeks. However, the town decided to go with another alternative discussed at the meeting — “low level” inmates from Somers Prison. Only two, rather than four, were available, but so far that has been sufficient, Skinner said. 

“That’s been working out well,” he said.

Also built into the estimate was as much as $5,480 for Public Works overtime. The town has used none so far for this project and as of Thursday afternoon was still assessing whether to do so this weekend, Skinner said.

One factor could be the possibility of snow next week, he said. Crews need to be ready for snow and hope to get the brush picked up before any more comes.

“We do need to get ready for winter too,” Skinner said.

The town is getting some outside help with pickup as well, Skinner said. The state Department of Transportation may not be able to help a full week as originally planned but has said it will work on some main roads, such as East Hill, Center Street, Huckleberry Hill and Simonds Avenue. The DOT is also working on brush pickup on state roads.

Connecticut Light and Power has agreed to help as well but Skinner did not have a list of specific streets Thursday.

Skinner said it is hard to predict if the town will be able to do the pickup in two weeks as he originally hoped. 

The town is bringing its brush to a property owned by Martel Real Estate on Powder Mill Road. Dean Martel has offered storage of the brush free of charge. Residents who can bring their own brush are also dropping it off at the site.

“We do appreciate his generosity,” Skinner said.

The town is getting estimates to turn the brush into wood chips using a tub grinder, essentially an industrial wood chipper. The town is getting estimates but the cost will likely be $2 to $3 a yard, Skinner said.

He did not have an updated estimate but said about a week ago there was about 2,500 yards at the site.

The town also has about 600 yards of brush on land owned by Canton Village Construction. It is still working on details to take care of that as well.

In other storm-related news, Skinner said a temporary power outage on Route 44 Wednesday was due to a blown transformer. Due to various equipment changes as CL&P restored power after the storm, Skinner said he “would not be surprised” if a few such situations occurred in the near future. And while the town and state are working to get them all, hanging limbs could also present some problems, Skinner added.