Staff report

The days for residents to place unlimited amounts of storm debris on city roadways for pickup are numbered.

After Hurricane Isabel ravished the city last September, the city temporarily set aside its policy that limits the amount of residential yard debris the city will collect to eight cubic yards.

The city will resume its normal refuse collection procedures on Jan. 1, said Eric Nielsen, the city’s director of public works.

For the past three months, the city and Crowder Inc., the firm the city hired to handle cleaning up after the hurricane, have picked up countless numbers of downed limbs and trees from homes across the city. The debris was taken to a city site on Sleepy Hole Road and ground into mulch.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to reimburse the city about $3.5 to $4 million for the debris removal, Nielsen said.