[StBernard] debris

[Westley Annis]

Although back in December there was a posting on this forum that FEMA WOULD
pick up new, residential construction debris (I had asked if I needed to
rent a dumpster and the reply was no), FEMA is not paying for URG's debris
if it is new boxes, sheetrock, scrap materials, etc. So my neighborhood,
which is coming back strong, and has many residents who read that reply in
December, have mounds of new construction debris piled up. We confirmed with
the debris workers on the streets that they have to skip over anything not
storm debris.

The parish needs to put a story in the newspaper and on the web to let us
know that FEMA reversed itself and owners must dispose of new debris at
their own cost. Unfortunately, it's month ten and every parish but ours has
a public site for bona fide residents to bring their debris. We only have a
handful of dumpsters for household garbage around the parish. I suspect the
reason is because FEMA is not paying for services normally provided by a
parish prior to the storm, and our parish has not budgeted for public
dumpsters for debris.

We want people to clean their properties, we want people to repair their
houses, we want people to build new houses,  but we fail to provide public
access to dump sites and don't publicize that owners have to contract for
this debris removal at their own cost. We also don't need to flood due to
clogged drains from this additional debris.

Anyone knows of a reliable company that is disposing legally, and not
dumping on someone else's property, please post their name and no. and if
you know the going rate per truck load or cubic yard, that would be helpful
to many of us.

Deborah Keller