Companies remain swamped by storm cleanup work in Colorado Springs

Two days after a late spring snowstorm hit Colorado Springs, private tree and landscaping businesses are still trying to catch up with the high number of service requests.

Several businesses are so busy that they have left voice messages for potential customers saying that they have stopped taking service requests.
“I think we have enough business to last through September,” said Al Wegner, of Timberline Landscaping. “We’re putting storm cleanup work ahead of our regular work.”

Businesses are cutting down damaged trees, limbs and branches, or removing fallen trees, limbs and branches from commercial properties, for homeowners’ associations and from the yards of private homeowners.

Because city crews do not perform cleanup work on private property, the situation may be a burden to elderly or low-income residents who can’t do the work or afford to pay someone to do it.

“I got a quote this morning,” said Rebecca Floyd, a north Colorado Springs homeowner with two piles of debris on her property. “$700 to $900, mostly because they have to go up in the trees to cut down broken branches and limbs. If they were just hauling the stuff away, it would cost $200.”

Floyd said that fortunately, she can afford the expense.

“But I know some people can’t,” she said. “I don’t know what they’ll do.”

Wegner said cleanup costs depend on the number and condition of trees on a property, and that insurance covers only damage caused by trees falling on homes.

“I’ve seen as many as 10 trees on a property that were destroyed,” he said. “A cleanup could cost from several hundred dollars to several thousand. Just beware of scams. Watch for people who ask for money up front, or can’t tell you when the work will be finished.”

Wegner said for people who can’t afford to pay for cleanup or are unable to do the work themselves, Rocky Top Resources, on Las Vegas Street in Colorado Springs, will take brush for a donation of a canned good.

“They harvest the debris, grind it into mulch and sell it,” he said.

But it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to bring the debris to the facility.

“I’m in a gardening group on Facebook and a bunch of people are offering to haul some of the debris,” Floyd said. “I have a pickup truck, so I could do it.”

Wegner said many volunteers are stepping forward to do that.

“That’s what I’ve been seeing and what I’m hearing from other businesses,” he said.