Tuesday, October 15, 2024- We are increasing our crews to pick up all of the vegetative storm debris in our county from our back-to-back hurricanes. County crews are going to augment our disaster debris vendor in picking up the vegetative debris piles. Last week, crews were in the Keystone Heights, Fleming Island, and Doctors Inlet areas. This week, crews will continue to focus on Fleming Island.
If you are on that specific route and have been missed, please call our call center at 877-CLAYEOC. That call center will continue to operate from 8-5, Monday through Friday. We will post continuous updates when crews complete routes here on our website.
Timeline:
Ahead of Hurricane Helene making landfall, we started working with our disaster debris vendors to activate crews to pick up the vegetative storm debris across our county. As this is a process through FEMA, there are numerous requirements that had to be met prior to crews actively collecting storm debris. On October 7, crews started picking up the debris, and will continue to do so until the operation is completed. This could take several weeks.
Yard waste vs storm debris:
Remember, FCC Environmental Services is picking up your bagged and containerized yard waste, and the county crews and vendor are picking up vegetative debris piles. Once an area is cleared by our crews, it will be turned over to FCC Environmental Services for all yard waste pickups, which includes vegetative debris piles. That company will handle the vegetative debris piles from then on.
If you are able to cut down your smaller vegetative storm debris and put it into containers, FCC Environmental Services will pick it up on their weekly yard waste pickups. There are weekly limits on regular yard waste pickups, and you can learn more on our website. Please know FCC Environmental Services has two trucks running on your street each service day, one for yard waste and one for garbage.
Citizen vegetative debris drop-off:
The citizen debris drop-off site will be closed at 7:00 PM on Wednesday. However, residents can take their storm debris to the Rosemary Hill Solid Waste Facility, and the Doctors Inlet and Keystone Heights Environmental Convenience Centers (ECCs). You can find those hours of operation here on our website.
What about wooden fencing and other storm debris?
You must separate tree limbs and vegetative debris from items like wooden fencing. Wooden fencing or other non-vegetative storm debris can be collected in a bulk pickup through FCC Environmental Services, which can be arranged by calling 904-490-9996 or brought to the Rosemary Hill Solid Waste Facility. Residents who pay for garbage collection can bring up to 500 pounds per month at no charge to that facility.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
Please pile your vegetative storm debris by the road, and be aware of where you place your debris. Do not stack debris against trees, electrical boxes, poles, hydrants, or storm drains.
Crews are using smaller vehicles to get down the more narrow roads to ensure the debris gets picked up across the county.
Like the other counties around us, we have debris across our county that needs to be picked up. We appreciate our community’s patience as we work through this process as quickly as possible.
