Sioux Falls crews are still working to clean up branches around the city from an April Ice Storm. Contractors have been brought in to take care of breaking down all the broken up trees collected. This can be a very dangerous job to everyone involved.
The Sioux Empire Fairgrounds are seeing more traffic these days because it is a designated dumping site for remains of the April Ice Storm. To help with the clean up, contractors such as TFR Enterprises were called in. TFR Enterprises has helped with clean up in many major cities after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina clean up in New Orleans. Trent Lubbers with the City of Sioux Falls says the site where the big machines are located is not for the public.
"This is what we are calling a contractor dump off site. We have separated our sites as much as possible so that a residential drop off site where people are bringing in their own branches is not associated or near one of these large sites where we have contractor traffic," Lubbers says.
Lubbers says safety is most important for the contractors. He says hard hats, work boots and construction vests are to be worn at all times. TFR has brought in a lot of high powered machinery to help break down the bigger parts of trees . The one thousand horse power blender machine can break down multiple pieces at a time. Once it is broken down, the mulch material can be burned, broken down more, or even resold to smaller contractors. Lubber says in his 20 plus years he has never seen a disaster like the April Ice Storm or a clean up effort like this one. Lubber says the process should be done fairly soon, but didn't give an exact date.