Highway Dept Piles Oct Storm Debris at State Park

Back in , the Clarkstown Highway Department was quickly filling up Germonds Park with brush and debris from the 1-day snow storm in October. Wayne Ballard, Clarkstown Highway Superintendent, said he expected that all yard waste and 60 percent of all leaves would be picked up by Dec. 31 if there were no major delays from snow storms.

“The weather and equipment cooperated and the men did a terrific job. We hit that goal and we’re in the final stages,” said Ballard. “There’s not much out there. Now there’s only little piles to pick up. We usually take in 3,000 cubic yards per day and now we’re down to less than 1,000 cu. yds. per day.”

Those visiting Rockland Lake State Park will notice a large brush pile. This is part of the issue Ballard dealt with in November and December of 2011.

The October storm left so much debris, he ran into the problem of capacity. The highway department usually dumps off its brush at the Clarkstown Compost Facility on Route 59 in West Nyack, which is managed by the Town Department of Environmental Control.

However, when that filled up, he had to start filling up Germonds Park.

“We filled up Germonds Park and we had to find another place to dispose of debris,” said Ballard. He’s now putting brush in the Rockland Lake State Park parking lot. From the October storm, Ballard said that there was 170,000 cu. yds. of brush, leaves and yard waste. In comparison, Hurricane Irene left 15,000 cu. yds. of debris.

The New York State Solid Waste Authority brought in an outside contractor, O&I, to grind up and take away the yard waste. NYSSWA will then decide whether to use it for mulch or biofuel.

“We already did one load of brush at Germonds Park,” said Anna Roppolo, director of the NYSSWA. “We got rid of a whole parking lot full of brush at the beginning of December. That took us about a week.”

NYSSWA plans to start grinding the rest of the brush at Germonds Park starting Jan. 13 and finish by the end of January or the beginning of February.

“Concurrently we’re working on (grinding) the brush at Rockland Lake too,” she added. “We’re trying to work on finishing that earlier than the end of January in time for the .”