By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

City commissioners along with Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty offered a public “Thank you” to city employees and Ellis County as cleanup continues following Wednesday morning’s severe storm.

“Kudos to all of our city crews as they clean up all the downed trees and limbs,” Dougherty said during his report at Thursday night’s city commission meeting.”They still have lots of hard work ahead.”

Mayor Eber Phelps described west 6th and 7th Streets as “looking like a war zone.”

The city of Hays pays a small fee to Ellis County for allowing residents to take trees, large limbs and brush to the county waste transfer station. “That keeps it out of our city compost pile,” Dougherty said, which is used for grass clippings and garden waste.

He got a phone call Wednesday from the county and was told “the landfill wasn’t set up to receive so many loads of decimated trees. The landfill’s KDHE permit (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) allows just a small area for tree disposal. Ellis County had to get a special permit from KDHE to use a larger area.”

Dougherty said two Hays employees helped direct Thursday’s constant traffic flow at the landfill as city, commercial, and private vehicles and trailers came in loaded with broken tree limbs and sawed-off portions of huge tree trunks.

He also announced more time will be allowed for residents to get tree limbs to the curb for pick-up by city crews. Curbside collection begins Friday, July 15, east of Vine Street.