Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 15
Coppell Weathers Effects of Big Storm • City Doles Out Baker’s Dozen of Grants • Speller Makes Return Trip to National Bee • Online Auction Features Bargains Aplenty
What a week that was. Our power was out for less than 36 hours, but I’m aware of some Coppell families who went without electricity until Saturday afternoon. Yikes.
Coppell Weathers Effects of Big Storm
North Texas has been a mess since Tuesday’s intense winds severed trees across the region, and many cities and towns — including Coppell — will remain messy for weeks.
“We will make every effort to work with our residents,” City Manager Mike Land said Tuesday. “We just ask that our residents also be patient, knowing full well that it’s going to take a while to clean this up.”
The city’s website has a handy Severe Storms page that features all of the relevant information, but I wanted to highlight a few things that Land stressed during his report to the City Council.
The trees on your property are your responsibility.
Land said city crews are working on clearing tree limbs that are blocking streets and public rights-of way. But city employees will not be able to remove debris from private property; that’s on you.
Knowing that not everybody has the ability to cut limbs and drag them to the curb, the city has contacted volunteers from the last three editions of the Coppell Connects: Neighbors Helping Neighbors event to see if they’re willing to assist. Separately, many Coppell residents who are adept with chainsaws are offering their services. I’ve already hired one to help me with this tree that fell through my rear neighbor’s fence and my redundant fence, then landed on my patio.
Land also pointed out that the city’s Tool Lending Trailer can be reserved.
Small branches and brush must be tied.
If you have branches that are 4 feet or shorter, you can assemble them into bundles weighing less than 40 pounds and place them wherever you put your yard waste for Wednesday collections. But those bundles must be tied with cotton or jute string.
“If they’re not tied, they will not be picked up,” Land said. “And that’s consistent with what we do any other time.”
Land added that those small bundles can be put out for collection on Wednesdays as long as it takes for Republic Services to collect them all.
Large branches will line our curbs for weeks.
Tree debris that’s longer than 4 feet must be hauled to your curb, even if your trash and recycling is normally picked up in your alley. Republic Services will eventually send grappling trucks to collect those larger limbs, and those trucks can’t operate within the confines of an alley.
Coppell’s administration is working with Republic on scheduling those collections, but Republic works with lots of other cities in North Texas. All of those cities were hit by the same storm, and all of those cities have plenty of trees (although not as many as they had a week ago). Land estimated that the soonest Coppell’s larger limbs might start being collected is June 10.
“It’s going to be a few weeks,” he said. “So we just ask for everybody to be patient.”
City Doles Out Baker’s Dozen of Grants
Some people think of 13 as an unlucky number, but that’s the amount of fortunate folks who will receive residential rehabilitation grants from the City of Coppell.