Round Rock Edition | March 2023

Of the roughly 1 million cubic yards of debris caused by Winter Storm Mara, city sta said Round Rock crews will remove an estimated*: TOTAL VOLUME

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COST OF THE STORM As of Feb. 23, the city of Round Rock has approved several million dollars toward the Winter Storm Mara cleanup eort. City sta said that could increase in the coming weeks.

THAT AMOUNT OF DEBRIS WOULD FILL THE DELL DIAMOND TO: 120 FT. HIGH 400K 600K CUBIC YARDS

through March],” Round Rock City Manager Laurie Hadley said in a

Feb. 16 statement. Continued cleanup

Hadley said the city has deployed a vast amount of its own resources toward the cleanup eort in addition to employing outside contractors, including TFR Enterprises and Austin Wood Recycling. David Buzzell, assistant director for the Round Rock Parks and Recre- ation Department, is overseeing the ongoing debris removal campaign. Buzzell said as of late February, more than 60 employees from various city departments were still working alongside contracted workers to con- solidate debris to the main repository sites in Round Rock: the Brush Recy- cling Center on Deep Wood Drive and the East Brushy Creek Regional Waste- water Treatment Plant by the Dell Dia- mond on Palm Valley Boulevard. Because the volume of brush is about 30 times more than what the city handles in an average year, Buz- zell said the facilities are lling up fast.

*ROUND ROCK HAS CONTRACTED WITH PRIVATE COMPANIES TO REMOVE THE REMAINING DEBRIS.

SOURCE: CITY OF ROUND ROCKCOMMUNITY IMPACT

However, crews have recently begun turning the brush into mulch, and Aus- tin Wood Recycling is removing it. Buzzell said the city received about 3,000 resident requests to remove debris during Winter Storm Uri, and crews were able to handle most of those in ve weeks. By comparison, the city’s ice storm recovery dashboard, which has been tracking the cleanup eort since Jan. 31, shows 10,076 Round Rock residents had requested brush pick- ups as of Feb. 27. “And those are the ones that have actually submitted requests,” Buzzell

said. “This is going to take several months to complete, probably.” Buzzell said the city’s time estimates on when the cleanup might be com- plete are really just a guess. There are many moving pieces, and the situation uctuates from day to day, he said. “We might go into one neighbor- hood, and the majority of the houses might have 1 to 2 cubic yards of brush, and then we may go into another neighborhood and consistently see 20 to 30 yards per house,” he said. Tons of debris Round Rock resident Joseph Vogas said several branches from his two oak trees cracked, but did not fall to the ground. He hired a contractor to trim the trees and put the branches on his curb. He put in a request to the city for brush removal, but he said the branches were still on his curb more than two weeks later. “Myself and most of my neighbors are still waiting for anyone from the city to come by,” Vogas said. Although he understands the cleanup eort is massive and it is dif- cult to respond quickly to so many applications, Vogas said he wishes city representatives would be more clear about when they can pick up debris in each neighborhood.

TOTAL: $4.62M

$3 MILLION to TFR Enterprises to pick up tree brush and debris $1.5 MILLION to Austin Wood Recycling to pick up tree brush and debris $115,286.25 to purchase a woodchipper

See the latest updates on debris and brush removal on the city dashboard here:

SOURCE: CITY OF ROUND ROCK COMMUNITY IMPACT

Crews continue to remove tree brush and debris from residents' yards.

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