PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — If you live in unincorporated Pinellas County and you still have debris that needs to be hauled away, you are running out of time for one drop-off location.
The county is making some changes that go into effect this weekend for the corner of East Lake Road and Keystone Road. They will be closing that site to residents at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20.
On Friday there was still a steady flow of cars, trucks, and SUV’s filled with debris as residents dropped off everything from tree limbs and furniture to drywall.
One of those residents is David Blythe and he is working in overdrive.
“I took a day off of work today to be able to bring it all here, but yea, I would of liked it to go through next week because I evacuated for a week and just got back mid-week this week, so it’s kind of quick to get everything together,” said Blythe.
Then there is Tony Esposito, who is making what he hoped would be the first of several visits with what’s left of his palm tree.
“About a 30 foot palm tree came down, so I had to cut it all down and drop it off,” said Esposito.
Tony said he had no idea the site would be closing in just a few days.
“Good thing that you are telling me, I didn’t know that. I am going to come back again and drop off more stuff,” said Esposito.
Pinellas County says the change is necessary because the site cannot safely accommodate residents and contracted workers at the same time. They say the bottom line is, this will get debris off the streets faster.
“Well if you think about it, how much debris can you fit in, say, a pickup truck or a U-haul rental? The answer is not very much compared to dump trucks with attached cranes. And what they can do is move debris at volume and they can’t really operate on the site at the same time as residential cars, it’s not safe,” said David Connor, Pinellas County PIO.
The county also says there is a time table they are working extremely hard to meet. So far, county contractors have picked up more than 1,000 loads of storm debris to date.
“Our goal is to get as much of or all of the debris cleared up within the first 90 days of the storm because that will qualify the county for 100-percent reimbursement— that’s what President Biden said when he visited here last week”
If you are a resident of unincorporated Pinellas County and you know you are still going to have debris going into next week there is a second drop-off location that will remain open to all residents.
It’s located at 13600 Icot Blvd in Clearwater and they are expanding their hours. Starting on Monday it will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, click here.
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