Orion Township hopes to finish picking up ice storm debris from curbsides by this Saturday, according to Orion Township Buildings and Grounds Director Reenae Tulip.
Tulip presented a report on the status of the clean-up to the Orion Township trustees on May 19, saying that if the two companies hired by the township worked through Saturday, May 24, the cost to the township would be $97,000.
“Hopefully we will get done through Saturday, that’s what we’re pushing for,” she said.
Clean-up was to be done by voting precincts, with the township hiring G&G Tree Service to work in the northern end of the township, starting in Bunny Run. Tulip said as of May 19, the company had finished precincts 1 and 3, was currently in 11 and planned to move to 12 when 11 was finished.
Tucker’s Tree and Landscape was working in the southern end, having finished precincts 13, 7, 10, 5, 6 and 8, in that order, and was currently in 14, and would move into 9 after that.
Tulip said she expected Tucker’s would finish 14 and 9 by the end of the week, and would start precinct 4. She said although precinct 4 was in G&G’s contract, it had their hands full with precincts 11 and 12, and did not mind giving up precinct 4 to Tucker’s.
Tulip said both companies were taking woodchips to Friendship Park, and that various contracts and lawn maintenance crews had been taking wood chips to Civic Center Park as well. Wood chips are free to Orion Township residents, if they come out and pick them up. Wood chips at Friendship Park will be available as soon as the trucks stop going in and out of the park.
Invoices submitted to the board for approval on May 19 were in the amount of $25,740. The figure reflected clean-up through May 12 for G&G, and through May 7 for Tucker’s. The Village of Lake Orion will also receive 10 percent of the township’s total clean-up cost, up to $10,000, for cleaning up the village (precinct 2) by the village DPW.