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Paying For What Contractors Should Do.

Speaking from the audience, Joe Valinoti, Oriental’s Solid Waste Coordinator said the duct-work and insulation that contractors are pulling out of homes should not be part of the town-wide FEMA-subsidized pick-up. Valinoti said that the contractors are supposed to be responsible for carting away those things because they charge customers for that. Ditto, he said, homeowners who are doing their own work and whose insurance companies pay them something for hauling it away.

Valinoti said that regardless of which taxpayers were footing the bill, the “big companies” doing the contracting work in homes “need to be told to pick up that stuff now.”

Town Manager Maxbauer said that he was “in total agreement” with the facts that Valintoi presented but added that practically speaking it would he hard to enforce. He and Mayor Bill sage said that the monitors following the trucks around were already supposed to be jotting down what was in the piles in front of each home and that an accounting of that could be done afterward.

One resident in the audience noted, however, that debris was being put in piles that were not necessarily in front of the homes that the debris came from.

Separated Debris Piles Means Quicker Pick Up

The Town Manager again urged that residents help the process by segregating their debris so that the vegetative waste is separate from the C&D. Putting them together slows down the process because the crews have to stop to move, for instance, a discarded dresser from atop a pile of brush. For that reason, he said, they might pass on picking up certain piles until town crews could separate them.

Hazardous Waste Question Raised

Oriental resident Missy Tenhet asked about pick-up of paint cans and other hazardous waste that went floating in garages or floated from one yard to another. Resident Mike North asked about that too, saying that his low-lying yard was the recipient of cans from other people’s garages and sheds.

In its initial announcement of the town-wide pickup, the Town did say that residents could leave a pile of household hazardous waste at curbside. But after some discussion at the Monday morning meeting, it was unclear if the haulers were equipped to do so.

“An advisory from Town Hall Monday afternoon states that the debris removal would not specifically pick up the hazardous waste.”:TOOHazWastePickUp.pdf Residents are advised to set those items aside and on October 15 take them to an already scheduled Household Hazardous Waste Collection day at the Pamlico County Courthouse parking lot.

The Town Manager updated the Board on other FEMA news and damage assessment to Town property. For one, he said, Town Hall incurred at least $10-15,000 in damage. The carpeted floor had flooded in Irene and mold is a concern. One FEMA assistant who visited last week, says Maxbauer, could only stay in the building “four or five minutes.” A professional assessment could tell more. Condemning the building, a step in getting FEMA “mitigation” grant money to then improve it, is one option as well.

He also said that a new control panel for the water plant may be eligible for FEMA funding. Also related to the hurricane is the cost of replacing the town’s police vehicle. Officer Dwaine Moore hit a tree on Kershaw Road as he was trying to drive to the Sheriff Department’s emergency gas pump to replenish supplies. Insurance money should come thru and, Maxbauer said, FEMA may pay beyond that.

Additionally, he told the Town Board that FEMA is also going to pay for the overtime hours that Town employees are working in the wake of the hurricane. He said he was also keeping receipts for items such as the dehumidifiers purchased to dry out Town Hall.

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Posted Tuesday September 13, 2011 by Melinda Penkava