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By David Walsh

Photo: A pile of brush in front of a house awaiting chipper service. Photo courtesy of the City of Brentwood.

BY LANDON WOODROOF

Crews from Brentwood’s Public Works Department are still scrambling to get the city’s wood chipper service back on schedule in the aftermath of several strong, gusty windstorms this past spring.

Piles of branches accumulating in front lawns have left some Brentwood residents calling the department, wondering when the city would get around to clearing their debris away.

Currently, the department is two weeks behind on the chipper service. That means that a street that customarily gets visited on the second week of the month should get visited this week. The full chipper schedule is available here.

The two-week delay is actually an improvement, the City of Brentwood’s Community Relations Director Deanna Lambert said. A few weeks ago the city was a month behind.

“We’re slowly catching up,” she said. “Hopefully Mother Nature will work with us here and not give us so many windy days.”

Workers have been able to catch up somewhat because they have been logging a lot of extra hours.

“Our crews have been working as hard  as possible,” Lambert said. “They’ve been working six day a week since March. That’s not usual. Usually, they’re just working five days.”

The most disruptive weather event this spring was the March 1 tornado that ripped away branches and toppled trees all over town. After the tornado, the city contracted for extra workers to help with cleanup. A couple of other strong storms followed, however, that left even more limbs to clean up.

The city has been providing weekly updates on the chipper service on its Facebook page.

Residents who need the chipper service should be sure to have any brush they want cleared away placed on the curb in front of their houses by the Monday morning of their scheduled service week.

They should also be sure to abide by the following guidelines, which are reprinted below from the city website:

  • Stack brush behind the curb as close as possible but not in the road or on the shoulder of the road.  Placement on the paved surfaces of the street is prohibited and creates a danger to the public and potential liability to the homeowner. The homeowner will be required to remove immediately any brush stacked in the road and place it back in the yard.
  • Stack with the cut end toward the curb.
  • No brush pieces should be longer than 12 feet.
  • Limbs/stumps greater than six inches in diameter will not be picked up by the City and the homeowner must dispose of these large limbs by some other means.
  • The city recommends cutting anything over six inches in diameter for firewood.
  • Commercial tree trimming will not be accepted and must be hauled away by the person(s) that performed the trimming service. Commercial tree trimming includes any third party performing such services for the homeowner including, but not limited to, landscaping service, tree removal/trimming company, handyman, or other person(s) performing such services.
  • Bagged leaves will be picked up.
  • Dirt, loose leaves and trash will not be picked up.
  • At the discretion of the Public Works Director or his designee, city crews may refuse to service certain brush piles that due to the size or composition exceed the reasonable capabilities of the city’s resources or go against the intent of this service.