by Nicole Bradford
Debris removal in Pearland is expected to begin this week as the city works to recover from Hurricane Beryl.
At an emergency meeting on July 10, the city council extended the city’s disaster declaration for another 60 days and waived permit fees for storm repairs.
The city has a debris removal contract with Ceres Environmental Operations.
“Frontier Waste is not our debris hauler,” City Manager Trent Epperson said. “Frontier Waste did resume regular trash pickup (July 9). They get a lot of questions and comments about why aren’t you picking up debris?’ They’re not contracted to pick up that volume of debris. That’s what the other contractor is for.”
Debris should be placed as close to the curb as possible, city staff said, and there are no size limitations for storm debris.
“If you can drag it out to the road, they can pick it up,” Epperson said.
With a long storm season still ahead, Mayor Kevin Cole said lessons were learned during Beryl.
“It’s a reminder that we need to be self-sufficient and able to be off the grid for 3, 4, 5 days,” Cole said. “Hopefully we have more people prepared if and when we have another one later this season.”
The mayor said he did notice a positive difference between Hurricane Beryl and winter storm Uri.
“People had their tasks to do and they were dedicated to doing it,” Cole said, adding that lack of power afterward will always be a struggle.
“It’s inevitable in a storm like this,” he said. “Perspective is everything.”
For more information on debris pickup, call 281-652-1900.
