By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Following the July 16 storm in Great Bend, the City of
Great Bend announced that crews would sweep through the town and pick up
residents’ tree limbs at no charge. When the project started July 24,
Public Works Director Jason Cauley estimated it would last two weeks. Those two
weeks have passed, and Cauley said staff is halfway done with the cleanup and
it should take another two weeks to complete.
Along with city crews, various community organizations and individual volunteers
have assisted.
"Thank you to all the volunteers," said Cauley. "We had a lot of volunteers that came out and helped a lot of people that needed assistance. I still get a few people that call in that need assistance, and I can reach out to the same volunteers. I really appreciate everyone that has helped."
During the first week of the tree branch pickup, the City of Hoisington and
City of Ellinwood staff helped with the cleanup and there were 324 loads of
trees and limbs taken to the compost site. Last week with Great Bend staff
only, there were roughly 250 loads hauled to the compost.
Great Bend officials encourage neighborhoods where crews have yet to come by to
keep their branch piles near the curb. If the city already came through your
neighborhood and was unable to remove your branches because a vehicle was
parked in the way or some other obstruction, they will not be coming back
through.