Local government updates on tornado debris collection and cost

Jared Peltz, the assistant County Engineer for Roads Maintenance, speaks during a County Commission emergency meeting about tornado cleanup in the County Commission auditorium at the McPherson Governmental Complex in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, March 21, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

Marion County Board of Commissioners approved during an emergency meeting held on March 21 to spend an additional $500,000 for tornado debris removal, after they spent the initial $100,000, they still had an estimated 500 yards, or 470 loads, left pick up.

The money will come from the solid waste budget.

Bobbi Perez, a spokesperson for Marion County, indicated that the contractor handling the debris removal was Miller Pipeline, a company out of Indiana and the debris was being hauled to the Baseline landfill.

During the emergency meeting, the MCBOCC agreed that it was unlikely that the tornado damage was substantial enough to trigger federal relief, but it hoped that writing to Governor Ron DeSantis would result in possible contribution from the state.

Previously, at the March 15 commission meeting following the tornado, Guy Minter, attorney for the county, indicated that the neighborhood of El Dorado where the MCBOCC was considering debris clean up were private roadways and advised the commission that statutes prevent them from spending public money for the benefit of private property unless they could identify the public purpose.

The commission agreed that in this case, the amount of debris was such that blocked roads were a public hazard.

Marion County Administrator Mounir Bouyounes commended the commission for doing right by the community.

The City of Ocala

The City of Ocala has estimated that it has approximately 1,500 cubic yards of tornado debris to collect and estimates the approximate cost of debris removal to be $11,000.

“In addition to city staff collecting storm debris, we will be utilizing local vendor, Marion Tree for any tree work that needs attention during the cleanup efforts,” said Ashley Dobbs, spokesperson for the City of Ocala.