OCONTO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Communities are still cleaning up after last month’s storms rolled through Northeast Wisconsin. Oconto County is one of those communities.
“This is five times today,” Gary Wierschke from the Town of Riverview said.
That’s five times that Wierschke has had to load up his trailer, drive from his home and have his downed trees removed. This fifth stop won’t be his last trailer load of the day.
“We probably have five or six more to go yet,” Wierschke said.
He tells FOX 11 it’s a tiring process…
“The trees came down. They were huge. We had to cut all the branches off first then cut up all the timber, you know, the big stuff. But we’re getting there.”
Wierschke had a significant amount of tree damage. With this damage comes the need to get rid of it.
“We’re having problems just to locate where to put stuff that was on the roads.”
Kevin Hamann, the Oconto County Administrative Coordinator, tells FOX 11….
“Now what to do with the property owners and the county forest service. That’s going to be something we have to determine down the road.”
There are nine debris disposal sites across Oconto County for residents. They all look similar to this one in Crooked Lake.
Hamann says the problem is what to do with the trees after they’re collected.
“During the winter, somehow dispose of it properly either by burning it or however the forest service wants to get rid of it.”
And, he says that will come with time.
“The Langlade County, our county and some of our neighboring counties estimated 240,000 acres of downed trees. I don’t know where we’re going to get rid of it right now.”
You can find the list of debris disposal sites in Oconto County here.
