Waukegan residents dealing with spoiled food in their refrigerators and freezers because of the severe storm on July 27 — some families were without power for nearly a week — are getting help from the city to dispose of it.
Dumpsters are being placed between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily through Friday near the intersection of Delaware Road and Greenwood Avenue, as well as in the city parking lot at Sheridan Road and Water Street for specific storm-related waste.
Mayor Sam Cunningham said at a Waukegan City Council meeting Monday in City Hall that the dumpsters are being placed at the two locations to help people who are dealing with multiple days of lost electric power.
“Recent widespread power outages caused significant disruption for many families across the city,” Cunningham said. “To help residents continue to recover and clean up, the city is placing dumpsters for residents to dispose of spoiled food and outage-related trash every day this week.”
Cunningham was specific about what items are acceptable. It must be “strictly household outage trash and spoiled food.” Yard waste, tree trunks, concrete, bricks, stone, rocks, hazardous waste, flammable materials, car parts, small engines, paint, stain, oil or railroad ties will not be accepted.
As people can take spoiled food and other “outage-related trash” to the dumpsters, Cunningham said the city is dealing with the numerous downed trees. Areas in the 7th and 8th wards were some of the hardest hit. Trees all over the streets made navigating the roadways difficult.
“The goal for us was to open up the streets, put all of those trees on the parkway and then come back and pick them up from the parkway,” he said. “We had a lot of trees. In the 7th and 8th wards, you guys got bombarded.”
Though the Department of Public Works’ curbside brush pickup may be delayed because of all the storm-related damage, Cunningham said the city will remove it all as soon as practical.
“Crews will be moving neighborhood by neighborhood, so please place your brush at the curb, and we will get to them as we move through this process cleanup,” the mayor said. “We might be off our regularly scheduled brush pickup until we pick all of this up.”
David Motley, the city’s public relations director, said all power was restored to the final homes over the weekend.
Though the National Weather Service classified the rains and wind as a storm, not a tornado, Waukegan Fire Department Deputy Chief Matt Bjurleson said the wind speed reached 82 mph when the power went out at the Waukegan office at 3:30 p.m. on July 27; peak wind speed was estimated at 90 mph.
In North Chicago, Greg Jackson, the city’s chief of staff, said all power was restored Friday. City crews removed fallen trees and brush from public places. The process is ongoing. Since the mulching center is currently full, there is a temporary site. When there is room, it will be relocated to the mulching center.
More Top Picks Saccadic Dysfunction Explained For Parents