The Town of Clifton Park will soon be free of the debris created by last December’s ice storm, as the final cleanup began on Wednesday, April 1.
Vanauken Trucking was contracted by the town to handle the pickup operations at a cost of up to $3 million. A plan has been devised to make the operation move as swiftly and efficiently as possible, said Clifton Park Highway Superintendent Richard Kukuk.
What we’ve done is divide the residential areas into eight zones, and we’re going to do one zone in the north, one in the south, where the contractor will go through each area with electronic grapplers and pick up the large piles of debris, he said. `Our crews will come along behind them to pick up after them, and we will probably make a second pass after the first four or five weeks.`
Residents are asked to pile their debris as neatly as possible alongside the road (crews will not enter private property to pick up debris). Larger piles ` instead of long, low rows ` will expedite the process.
Kukuk said that crews are expected to clean up at least 100,000 cubic yards of debris once all is said and done, although that number could go as high as 200,000.
Seventy-five percent of cleanup costs will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the state will pick up 12.5 percent; and the town will pay for the remainder.
The Town Board awarded the contract to Vankeuren, a local operation, at its Monday, March 23, meeting. It had been long since decided that the storm’s impact on Clifton Park would require outside assistance once weather allowed it.
`It’s kind of been a day-to-day thing,` said Supervisor Philip Barrett, of the cleanup so far. `Some neighborhoods still have a fair amount of snow and ice There’s a tremendous amount of debris out there, between residents’ lawns and the parks.`
The town is making sure to follow the procedures set forth in the FEMA debris management guide, which must be followed to account for all the funds that are to be reimbursed.
`You have to document what you’re spending is a reasonable expense and document that the fees that you’re paying the contractor are reasonable expenses,` said Kukuk. `If they’re not satisfied, they can require the funds to be returned.`
The cost of cleanup will come from the town’s general fund, and reimbursements will go back in.
Cleanup of the debris started following the storm, but the onset of winter weather stymied those efforts. Towns in southern Saratoga County like Clifton Park and Halfmoon were pummeled by the ice storm, more so than other communities in the Capital District. Many residents were without power for days on end and sought refuge at town halls and Red Cross warming shelters. Altogether, about 263,000 homes across the Capital District lost power.
In Halfmoon, cleanup has been progressing as weather allowed after the storm, but Highway Superintendent John Pingelski said that about 40 percent of the work still remains.
`We’ve been actively doing it since December, and once the weather cleared, we’ve been putting in 10-hour days,` he said.
Halfmoon has elected to leave the cleanup to its Highway Department, with 20 employees, in an effort to control costs. Inmates from Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility also began assisting the effort recently.
Pingelski said he couldn’t comment on the cost of cleanup efforts until they are closer to completion, but he did say that Halfmoon will be receiving the same federal and state assistance as in Clifton Park, including on the purchase of a new wood chipper that’s handling much of the debris.
By selling the chipped debris to the Finch Pruyn Paper Mill of Glens Falls, the cost of hauling away the debris is mitigated.
With 107 miles of road in Halfmoon, Pingelski estimated that cleanup will be completed sometime in mid-May. Until then, he advised residents to stack branches neatly by the side of the road, wide end out, and to exercise patience.“
