Final Push To Clear Brush From Township Streets

They have picked up thousands of tons of brush, fallen trees, branches, twigs and other brush downed and damaged by Hurricane Sandy and the nor’Easter that followed.

Today, Public Works employees, assisted by a North Jersey crew contracted to help the township dig out of its brush mountain, may be in your neighborhood.

Township officials have created an online, interactive map of neighborhoods that are targeted for final brush removal and the prospective dates for pickup of perhaps the largest brush removal operation in Wall Township’s history.

The map, available online through the township’s website, divides the township into eight brush-clearing areas. Crews started in the northwest portion of the township  and today are targeting an area in the south west, according to the map.

“This is a monumental task for us,’’ Township Administrator Jeffry Bertrand said.

Public Works crews have been working extra hours and additional days to clear the heaps of brush piled high on street corners throughout the township, Bertrand said. And by last week, before the final push seen this week and next, workers had cleared about four times the amount of brush created by Hurricane Irene, he said.

Public Works personnel worked last Friday and Saturday, following the Thanksgiving holiday – days they would normally have off, Bertand said.

And they’re being aided by T. Farese Direct, a North Jersey company, which is being paid $1,400 a day for the use of three truck dumpsters and one employee to operate the truck. Bertrand said the company came highly recommended by other municipalities. He expects that the company will be used for about three weeks, at a cost of about $80,000.

Public Works crews are also being augmented by a battalion of about 12 volunteer firemen, who have been hired as temporary workers to clear the bush from the 30-miles of streets in Wall Township.

“Our goal is to get this stuff out of here before we have any significant snowfall,” Bertrand said.

Hurricane Irene left a total of about 1,000 tons of felled trees, branches and brush in Wall Township, Bertrand said. As of last week, more than 4,000 tons of brush had been removed from township streets from the recent storms, Bertrand said.

Crews today will begin working in the central western section of town, bounded by Route 35 to the east to township boundary to the west and Atlantic Avenue on the north to Lakewood Road to the south, according to the map. This area includes both Orchard Crest and the Apple Ridge developments.

“We had very little structural damage throughout the town, and no houses with long term problems,” Bertrand said. “A lot of towns in his area can’t say that. We got lucky.”