CARY, NC – It will be early January before Town of Cary crews complete their first collection of debris from the December ice storm, and because the amount of debris is higher than preliminary estimates, Cary has decided to conduct a second sweep of the town later in January. For those who don’t want to wait for the town-wide collection to reach them, they have the option of taking their vegetative storm debris to the Citizens Convenient Center on North Dixon Avenue in downtown Cary.

"Our crews have made tremendous progress and given the greatest effort to meet our goal of having this finished before Christmas, but it doesn’t look that is going to be possible," said Public Works Division Director Mike Bajorek. "With the exception of Christmas Day, we’ll continue our sunup to sundown, seven-days-a-week work, including Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, and New Year’s Day."

Those who participate in the holiday tradition of placing luminaries at the curb are asked to exercise extra caution this year because of the large amount of debris remaining in some areas. "If you place luminaries, be sure to keep them separated from all combustibles, including yard waste and debris," said Cary Fire Education Specialist Kathy Ellis. Have a garden hose or fire extinguisher handy, and make sure to extinguish all luminaries before leaving home or before going to bed.

About 16,000 cubic yards of trees, limbs, and other vegetative debris is being collected each day in Cary. More than 100,000 cubic yards has been taken from more than half of the neighborhoods in town, and officials predict that another 100,000 cubic years will be taken from the curb before the book closes on the early December ice storm.

"The amount of debris from the storm is reminiscent of what we saw with Hurricane Fran," said Bajorek. "The difference is that with Fran, we saw pockets of totally devastated areas where with this storm it seems like everyone throughout Cary has had some level of vegetative loss."

Citizens are reminded to place their debris on the curb as opposed to the street and to avoid covering water meters, fire hydrants, and sewer clean-outs. There are no limitations on size—whole trees may be brought to the curb. Stumps and tree wads will be accepted but will be collected at another time. And since leaf collection is being conducted separately, try not to pile debris on top of loose leaves.

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