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Macomb, IL-- 10 weeks and hundreds of loads later, Macomb is ready to wrap up its cleanup from December's ice storm.

Public works director Walter Burnett told KHQA the city was able to clean the debris with help from IDOT, IEMA, and the city of Bushnell.  All that debris was taken to the city's yard waste site. Burnett expects the entire process to finish Friday, March 13th.

Because of the cleanup project, Burnett says that city crews have fallen behind other maintenance projects such as pot hole repair and storm sewer projects.  But not only did this cleanup put several projects on hold, it put a major dent in the city's budget.

Burnett told us the cleanup is expected to cost $20,000 because Macomb was denied state disaster aid.  We wondered if the city could afford this expense.

Burnett says," It's a matter of have to. We've been able to control the cost to a large degree, but it's certainly hit our fuel bill pretty heavily." 

Burnett says city crews will do a final run through to make sure all debris was collected. The next step is the incineration process, which will take another 6 to 8 weeks.