• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

New Dump: Nauset Beach

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Dec. 21--ORLEANS -- Pickup trucks and trailers filled with debris continue to file in and out of Nauset Beach parking lot.

They are leaving behind a growing mountain of tree limbs and logs two stories high in some places, unlike anything residents here have seen before.

More than a week after the Cape was hammered by hurricane-force winds from a quick-moving storm, residents are still clearing trees from their properties and hauling them to the Nauset site.

"This has been my eighth trip since Saturday and I'm about halfway done," moaned Scott Silva, who lives with two roommates on Mayflower Point. Silva's roommates were busy hacking up branches and tree trunks with chain saws back home while the noticeably frigid Silva lugged logs to the beach parking lot Monday.

"I've spent at least 16 hours cleaning up after the storm," Silva said. "I've been doing this all weekend. I heard there was some good surf, but of course I missed out on that."

Normally the town transfer station accepts brush, but the landfill is being capped so dropping brush there is not an option. Even if it were possible, there isn't enough room at the landfill for the amount of trees and branches downed in the Dec. 9 storm, according to Town Administrator John Kelly.

"The area is just too small," he said.

Residents will be allowed to drop off wood and brush at the beach parking lot until Friday, when the town will hire a contractor to chip and remove the wood. The cost will be paid out of a town self-insurance fund of up to $50,000, though the final cost of the project will not be known until the parking lot is closed to further drop-offs.

While residents are allowed to drop off their fallen trees, they are not allowed to take any of the wood. A public works employee will be stationed at the site through the week.

Drop-offs are also restricted to Orleans residents or to contractors who have proof they are working for a town resident.

"This is not a regional thing," Kelly said.

The lot, with 900 parking spaces, is as much as one-third covered by the debris -- an area of roughly 60,000 square feet, according to Parks and Beaches Superintendent Paul Fulcher.

New material is being piled on top by a front-end loader.

"I certainly haven't seen anything this impressive in a while," said Hank Spadaccia, lifting thigh-sized logs from his station wagon Monday. The Nauset Farms Road resident was on his second trip to the site, much to his dismay.

"Luckily we didn't lose any big trees in our yard. This is just leftover branches," he said.

By Patrick Cassidy and Jason Kolnos

-----

To see more of the Cape Cod Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes.

Copyright (c) 2005, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Cape Cod Times

More News in this Category