Sandy Brush Clean-Up Underway, Highway Supe Says Get it Out to Curb

Southold Town Highway Department workers made a sweep this past weekend through the easterly parts of the North Fork to clean up curbside brush and debris left behind by Hurricane Sandy, but facing a nor’easter on Wednesday, town highway superintendent Peter Harris is encouraging residents to clean up brush from Sandy sooner than later.

“We’ve made our way through Orient, East Marion and parts of Greenport, but already more stuff is showing up,” he said at a Southold Town Board work session Wednesday morning. “We really don’t want to keep bouncing back and forth between townships.”

Harris said that workers, who are getting paid overtime to pick up the storm debris, will make sure low-lying places in Greenport are free of brush before high tide hits on Wednesday with the nor’easter.

“Thank God the storm isn’t going out father or we’d be covered in a blanket of snow," he said, adding that though he understands that this has been a tough week for everyone, if you have a truck and can take storm debris to the landfill in Cutchogue — free of charge — you should do so.

Southold Town released these instructions re: brush pick up: 

"All limbs and branches must be no greater than 10’ in length and all leaves must be placed in brown paper biodegradable bags. Construction materials, landclearing, household debris/trash and marine debris will not be accepted. Please be patient and once an area has been cleared, the crews will not return."