WS Chronicle

Brush collection and code enforcement in Winston-Salem resumed Monday, June 1. Also city residents will again be charged fees for taking yard waste to the Forum 52 and Overdale Road yard-waste processing facilities. All three activities were suspended in early April as part of the city’s Level 3 response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brush collection will resume in the eastern quadrant of the city (quadrant 1), east of U.S. 52 and Liberty Street and south of Old Walkertown Road. Once the brush in quadrant 1 is collected, crews will move to quadrant 2 (southwest quadrant) and then through quadrants 3 and 4 before starting over again in quadrant 1.

The rate at which collection crews get through the city will depend upon the volume of brush that has built up while brush collection was suspended, said Tiesha Hinton, the city’s sanitation director. “We’re asking the citizens to please be patient,” Hinton said. “It’s been more than two months since we last collected brush and we expect that it will take our crews longer than usual to get through all the neighborhoods.”

A map showing which quadrant crews are working in, along with guidelines for brush collection, is posted at CityofWS.org/Brush.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities temporarily waived yard-waste fees at the Forum 52 and Overdale Road yard-waste processing facilities for city residents while yard-waste and brush collections were suspended. Yard-waste collection resumed May 4 and with brush collection resuming, Utilities will resume its normal fee schedule at the facilities.

Residents in cars, minivans, station wagons or SUVs pay a flat rate of $4. Residents pay $12 for yard waste in full-size vans, pickup trucks (up to half-ton with an unaltered bed) and single-axle trailers up to eight feet long with sides up to 3.5 feet high. 

Residents must unload their yard waste and must continue to practice social distancing to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff and other citizens. Complete guidelines and rates are posted at CityofWS.org/Utilities.

Enforcement of the city’s housing and environmental codes also resumed and personnel are proactively enforcing both the housing and the environmental codes. The housing code ensures that houses and apartments are fit for human habitation. The environmental code covers such things as illegal dumping and overgrown lots.

Code personnel have a backlog of 600 to 700 cases to work through, estimated Marla Newman, the director of the Community Development Department that oversees code enforcement. “While we work through this backlog, we’re telling people to expect a response time of about 30 days if they report a code violation,” Newman said. “Our normal response time is three to five business days, and we hope to get back to that as soon as we can. But that’s not possible right now.”