[StBernard] Got to be a better way

[Westley Annis]

Maybe this makes too much sense, but being in Chalmette several days a 
week working on our house, there seems to be two phases of demo going 
on now. There's that initial gut the house whereby everything is put 
out on the curb and it's a massive quantity. It would be difficult to 
do anything else but just dump it on the lawns.

But this second wave of demo is becoming apparent, and it's a good sign 
of recovery, we're just having to do it axx backwards. That is, after 
the initial heaps of garbage have been picked up, the nitty-gritty demo 
by the homeowner, business, or their contractors start. This debris can 
be anything from busted-up floor tile and hardwood flooring to bricks 
and  lumber. It's the type of stuff that if there were dumpsters 
nearby, people could throw it in themselves or bag it and throw it in. 
That's got to be a lot more efficient and cheaper than the labor 
intensive crews with front end loaders, flagmen, and trucks trying to 
scoop up all this small stuff in relatively small piles every 50 feet. 
They don't get very far in an hour if you've watched them. Besides, I 
am now seeing people throw it all in the  back of a pickup truck, and 
drive to some open spot on the neutral ground or other vacant piece of 
land and just dump it. Why have it handled twice and still have it 
outside of a container?  I've talked to someone who dumped a load of 
ceramic tile out of  his truck and into an abandoned truck and on the 
neutral ground (which it then slid into the street), and he said there 
was no place else to put it away from his own lawn. And when rebuilding 
starts, it will be the same story with all the cardboard boxes, scrap 
lumber, and heaven forbid, all that new scrap sheetrock.

Can the parish at least approach FEMA on the concept of providing 
dumpsters in those subdivision that are in this second wave of demo? It 
would be easy to start with the neutral grounds of Palmisano, Corinne, 
DuBouchel, etc. as a test.

Also, could the parish get at least one public dump site where people 
who already have it in trucks can dump it? This is really insane for 
someone to put it in a truck, ride around, an dump it (where it would  
normally be illegal) if they was a public dump site like Jefferson 
Parish set up. Now is the time to start the public dump site if there 
isn't one already. Jefferson Parish just required that the drive show 
proof of residency and that it be residential construction materials.

The public containers for household garbage at the parish dumpsters 
seem to be working well, but they are not for this type of debris.

Deborah Keller