It’s Time Again To Help Neighbors

Spokane, a city made beautiful by its trees, was made beautiful in the midst of disaster last November when a storm coated trees in heavy ice and sent them crashing to the ground.

Within hours of that eerie night, when the only sound across the darkened city was that of snapping trunks and exploding transformers, a new sound spread across the area: the sound of neighbors helping neighbors. Volunteers with chain saws and trucks joined professionals in clearing the worst of the damage. It was a remarkable exercise in community.

But now, the winter’s snow is nearly gone and it has revealed that a huge amount of work remains. Broken branches hang at crazy angles from pathetic trees with missing tops and glaring wounds. Piles of debris are everywhere.

Many residents are not equipped or physically able to clean up a mess of this magnitude. Not everyone owns a pickup truck. Not everyone owns, or should try to operate, a chain saw. Some of the work will be hazardous.

How will we dispose of all this debris? The city’s solid waste program stands ready to accept it, chip it, compost it, burn it.

The storm was a disaster, but as far as federal disaster bureaucrats are concerned, it’s over. Only with reluctance did the Federal Emergency Management Agency agree to fund the city’s brush disposal costs during the month of March. That means there’s no fee this month for people who haul ice storm waste to the incinerator or a local garbage transfer station. In our view FEMA ought to recognize winter weather has inhibited cleanup and extend the free disposal period through April.

Residents will be chipping away at this chore until summer.

What the area needs most is another round of that marvelous volunteerism we experienced during the storm. Government can’t, and won’t, get the whole job done.

But the city and county can and will help, long after FEMA’s aid is gone, with the low disposal fee for “clean green” yard waste: the first 260 pounds free, then $20 a ton for the remainder. At that rate the average load costs $1.50.

Some of Spokane’s community centers and cop shops are taking calls from those who can volunteer trucks, chain saws, strong backs. They’re also taking calls from people needing help.

For those who don’t live near a center, neighbors on their own can pool resources, as they did in November. And if there are groups out there eager to raise money, why sell band candy when there’s a city full of yards with waste to haul?

Now’s the time to get to work, before the brush dries and becomes a summer fire hazard, and before the trees sprout leaves.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster For the editorial board