Contractors hired by the county government on Monday morning began clearing the remains of a burned mobile home and other debris from property off Jackson Lane West in northern Greene County.

Such cleanups occur after the debris ordinance process determines that the county government needs to do a cleanup and bill the properties' owners.

The county's debris ordinance allows the county to clean up properties itself, if owners are unwilling or unable to do so, after a complaint has been lodged and a lengthy process has been completed without the owner taking adequate action.

The Debris Committee has a $10,000 budget to use when the committee orders a cleanup after owners will not take action.

Leon Bird, Greene County's building official, said at the scene on Monday that the Greene County Commission's Debris Committee had authorized efforts to remove the remains of a burned mobile home, a fire-damaged pickup truck and other debris from the Frances Wynn property off Jackson Lane West.

Greeneville-based TEAM Millwright & Maintenance Company had won a bid to do the cleanup work.

"We've been trying to get this done for about three years," Bird said of the Jackson Lane West cleanup.

In May, the Debris Committee had agreed to authorize Bird to spend up to $3,000 on the Wynn property and $3,000 on the Clell "Pee Wee" Shelton property off Old Mountain Road.

Any funds left over from the Wynn cleanup should be applied to the Shelton work, Bird was told by the committee in May.

The committee last month had asked County Attorney Roger Woolsey to look into the legality of having the county Highway Department do all, or part, of the cleanup work, as a cost-saving measure.

State law ordinarily prohibits the county Highway Department from doing work (such as paving driveways) on private property.

But Debris Committee Chairman Jan Kiker asked County Attorney Roger Woolsey to see if an exception could be made to allow the Greene County Highway Department to assist with the cleanup efforts.

Woolsey advised her to consider "something else" other than the county Highway Department, in the absence of a go-ahead from the University of Tennessee's County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS).

Kiker said last month that Woolsey told her that "No answer from CTAS is usually no," and the same is usually true for a slow answer.

The committee chairman said she had discussed this with County Mayor Alan Broyles. She said Broyles advised her to talk to those in the county's Purchasing Department about using a purchase order to hire a private contractor.

When no answer was forthcoming from CTAS, county officials opted to hire a private contractor to do the work.

On Monday morning, TEAM Millwright & Maintenance employee Shorty Harmon used a backhoe to demolish the remains of a burned mobile home on the Jackson Lane West Property.

Scott Webb, another TEAM employee used a cutting torch to cut the mobile home's frame into small sections so that they could be loaded aboard a truck and hauled to a foundry for disposal.

In addition, TEAM employees Dewayne Dean and Darwin Crum worked to remove debris and clear overgrown vegetation from the site.

Building Official Bird said it likely would take at least two days to clear away all the debris from the Jackson Lane West site.

A fire-damaged pickup truck parked near the burned mobile home also would be hauled from the scene, Bird said.