Supervisors formalize policy on debris pickup in Lowndes County

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors is working to clear up confusion over who needs to clear out debris.

At Tuesday’s meeting Supervisors adopted a policy that makes official what has been standard practice for quite some time.

County road crews will not be picking up large tree debris, things like stumps, sections of tree trunks, and larger branches.

If a home or property owner has a tree taken down, it is the responsibility of the owner or the contractor who did the work to dispose of the material.

The county does run regular routes to pick up smaller tree and brush-cutting debris, but the larger pieces can’t be handled by the equipment on the brush trucks.

Board President Trip Hairston says the county doesn’t have the manpower and the equipment to spare for those larger jobs.

“If you have a tree removed, you can’t expect us to pick that up. It’s just one of those things we haven’t done in the past, over the last several years, and we’re not going to do in the future. Construction debris, so if somebody removes a deck off of their home, you can’t just pile it up on the road; we’re not going to be able to get that. We never have. Old washing machines, and things of that nature, you have to take those to the dump. Don’t burden the entire taxpayer base because of your construction debris.”

An official notice of the Debris Policy will be printed in local papers.