San Carlos Island
More than a month after Hurricane Ian hit, the heaps of trash that lined the streets of San Carlos Island are being picked up.
Last week, WINK News featured trash bags, belongings and debris littering the streets.
We hope that San Carlos’ garbage will soon be a thing of the past, but it’s not without its obstacles. The Homeowners Association missed an important step in the debris collection permit process.
Now they want better communication on these issues before the storm hits rather than after it hits.
Scott Rude was picking up pieces of his life. Why didn’t they fix the problem? ”
No one picked up his trash. “Now they’re removing all our trash from here,” Rude said.
By Wednesday, Rood said a misunderstanding had left debris on the curb for more than a month.
It wasn’t until last week’s WINK News article that the crew started showing up. The question is, why did it take so long to pick up the debris?
“Well, nobody signed the entry form right, so they didn’t know,” Ruud said.
The neighborhood homeowners association confirmed it had never signed the right-of-way form required to allow cleaners to pick up debris from the street. I said I didn’t know.
“Why didn’t someone call the guy on the street and tell him if he could sign an entry form he could come down and remove all your trash?”
Karla Pine doesn’t care why she wasn’t picked up. All that matters is that the trash is being picked up now.
“Holy sound! People care, and I thought, ‘Someone heard me,'” Pyne said.
Once the debris cleanup begins, the repair process finally begins.
“I can start to heal, and I can actually see my house and not have to smell it,” Pyne said.
This cleanup can be a long and multifaceted process.
