Decatur County and the City of Bainbridge are waiting on a final approval from FEMA with their contracts for additional storm debris cleanup from Crowder Gulf.

According to City Manager Chris Hobby, once that contract is approved, cleanup should begin within a week after that. He hopes the contract will get a stamp of approval sometime this week.

As the piles of storm debris wait to be collected, officials emphasized the importance of separating new debris that can be picked up within city limits and debris caused by Hurricane Michael.

If debris in the storm cleanup piles is still green, there runs a chance Crowder Gulf will not pick it up to haul it away. If green vegetation is hauled by Crowder Gulf, there also runs a chance FEMA will not reimburse Decatur County and the City of Bainbridge for its contract with Crowder Gulf for those portions of the debris.

“We really need people to start paying attention to those notices,” said Hobby. “We need to be done, because (if not) we are going to run into a big problem once pickup does start.”

Authorities also reminded residents that any debris that is not directly reachable from the right-of-way cannot be gotten. If debris is on private property, Crowder Gulf or FEMA will not accept the liability of traveling onto the property to retrieve the debris.