By the end of the week, Iola’s crews may be close to doing their first full sweep through town to haul off piles of brush, limbs and downed trees toppled in the July 14 storm that roared through Iola and Allen County.
Workers in Iola’s street and alley department, as well as helpers from other departments, continue to clear up brush piles across town. By Thursday, they had reached the final quadrant of town, the northeast section, Iola Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock said.
“We’d like to be done Friday, but it may roll over into next week,” Schinstock said. “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
As of the end of the day Wednesday, more than 500 loads of limbs had been hauled away to the city’s old compost site on the west edge of town.
Another pass-through is possible soon, “although we need to step back and reassess things,” Schinstock said. “We’ve got guys from other departments who need to get back to their regular projects.”
To wit, the aforementioned street and alley workers would normally be in the midst of their chip-seal work. But that is being pushed back until the debris is cleared.
Schinstock is uncertain when the chip-seal work, which will encompass much of the southeast part of town this year, will occur.
“We’ve got the materials ready,” he said. “We’ll have to go back through and re-sweep the roads first.”
The city may push up its fall cleanup week to help clear other storm debris. While nothing has been determined, Schinstock envisions a September cleanup day — it’s normally in October — to allow residents more opportunities to further trim or take down additional trees.
Of note, several city-owned properties designated as vacant green space will remain cluttered with downed trees for the time being.
“It looks ugly, but it’s low on our priority list,” Schinstock said. “We’ll probably get that cleaned up over the winter.”
Schinstock said the piles of brush from the old compost site, which had been closed for the last several years, likely will be burned over the winter, when north winds would blow smoke away from the nearby Russell Stover Chocolates plant. (The site was closed in 2002 because of fire concerns in proximity to the plant.)
“We opted to use the compost site to avoid inundating the landfill, and because it’s so much closer,” Schinstock said.
Meanwhile, Iola’s electric crews are going back to address temporary fixes necessary to restore power to the city.
“We’re still working on things like fixing meters that may have been pulled away from houses, or finding places where limbs are still on power lines,” Schinstock said.
With workers back on their regular eight-hour shifts, many departments are adjusting their schedules to allow them to work earlier in the morning, when temperatures are cooler, and finishing up by mid-afternoon.
