AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A month after Hurricane Helene, the pace of debris cleanup continues to be on the minds of Augusta leaders.

It was a key topic of discussion when Augusta Commission members and other officials met at the committee level Tuesday, with leaders approving millions to go toward that cleanup.

The city is trying to set a 90-day deadline to clean up the debris, which happens every day with trucks committed to crossing each street, some of them multiple times.

Crews are still on their first pass, according to officials.

“We know every area will get at least two passes,” said Steve Cassell of ISM Engineering, the rubble contractor. “In some areas, like the Montclair area, I don’t know that we’ll ever leave that area. We’ll have something there all the time.”

The city can go beyond 90 days with the cleanup, but it will cost money.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city 100 percent of the costs if it meets the 90-day deadline.

“After 90 days, it becomes a 75 percent refund,” City Administrator Temeka Allen said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Cassell said 95 transport units are operating right now.

He said there are five hazardous tree felling crews moving in right now and a fifth debris management site will open in Hyde Park on Friday.

He said 592,153 cubic meters have been collected so far. Cassell said one cubic meter is about the size of a washing machine. The amount of debris picked up so far would fill the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building 11 times over.

He said Walton Way and Wheeler Road were two areas of high importance in terms of debris removal.

There are streets bordered by heavily wooded lots where many tall trees were knocked down by the hurricane.

Huge piles of debris are stacked in the right-of-way along roads waiting to be picked up, and some of it sticks out dangerously close to passing vehicles.

He said he is working with utility companies to try to get some of the remaining downed and disconnected lines out.

“It’s not that we think they’re dangerous or that we’re not allowed to take them,” he said, but crews could grab one that’s still attached to a utility pole and end up knocking the pole down, he said.

There will be a phase where the contractors will give FEMA a list of debris on private land that people can’t get to the street and other issues, “and they’ll go out and look to declare that it’s a public safety hazard that has to be addressed for the general public good and then we can start looking at it.”

This could include private and gated communities.

Augusta Commission member Wayne Guilfoyle expressed concern about rental properties where landlords aren’t even aware of a problem.

“We’re trying to develop a list of places where we can go on private property and remove debris,” Cassell said. “But there are also volunteer organizations that are here to help.”

Commissioner Sean Frantom expressed anger at out-of-area contractors who come in and take advantage of people, charge high rates and convince people that trees need to be taken down when they really don’t.

And he’s worried it’s collecting debris on the streets.

Cassell said he contacted law enforcement “a couple of times just to let them know that if there’s a Bobcat on the street, it’s not ours.”

“If it’s on Walton Way, chances are it’s a private contractor dumping illegally on the roadway,” he said.

“My hope when we get this under control.”

Frantom asked Cassell if the public would be able to buy the wood chips and mulch that the scraps are turned into.

“There is a way to do this and I will look into it,” Cassell said.

Other repercussions of the storm

When it comes to fixing the infrastructure, the city has more than 90 days.

She said permanent repairs to the city’s infrastructure and facilities would be reimbursed by 75 percent.

“We currently have 18 months to complete this work,” Allen said. “For the past 30 days, all departments have been working with our contractor to prepare the paperwork for FEMA reimbursements.”

She said the 311 hotline — the number to call for problems with city services and utilities — had more than 27,000 calls — “and that wasn’t nearly all the calls that came into their office, that number exceeded 37,000 requests”.

She said all traffic signals are up and running now.

That’s not to say that traffic signals are trouble-free.

They are not synchronised, which means that traffic can become congested at junctions, with the length of the signals not reflecting the flow of traffic. It creates long waits at lights and long lines of cars – sometimes all the way to the previous intersection.

“The traffic crew is working on phase two and that’s making sure they synchronize the signals,” Allen said. “They analyzed the priority areas. And they’re working on Riverwatch and Washington Road, and they’ve already addressed the Eisenhower signals.”

Wes Byne, the city’s director of utilities, also provided an update to commissioners Tuesday.

He said the city is understanding with customers from a billing perspective.

“There are no transfer fees if you have to move from one house to another house or to an apartment because your house has been damaged,” he said. “We will have no late fees and no discount until January unless you have a chronic problem that existed before the storm.”

He said his staff will work with customers on an individual basis and “we’re not trying to penalize people at this time.”

He said customers will get a 25% credit on base charges.

That’s because water service was shut off or drastically reduced for about a week after the storm.

“We’re not trying to punish people who were adversely affected by the hurricane, and so we’re working with those items to make sure that everybody has confidence that if they have a crazy bill, we’re going to go and work with them on it,” a he said, “and we’ll make sure it should be as normal as it would be this time of year.”

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