Overgrown weeds pose problems for the City of El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)-- Driving down some highways in El Paso, you may see weeds covering the median. The director of Environmental Services for the city of El Paso, Nicholas Ybarra, says with the rainy season underway the city workers are working overtime to keep up with the growing weeds.

Ybarra says the city is on a rotating schedule throughout the city, maintaining about 200 miles of medians. Yet, it takes about a week to a week and a half to do a mile of the median.

"We're not just pulling the weeds and cutting the grass, we're also trimming the trees that are out there, trimming the bushes, collecting all the debris because there's a a lot of debris that gets collected during the windstorms that get in the bushes," Ybarra told ABC-7.

He said right now this area of the department has 38 workers with seven or eight vacancies that need to be filled.

"We're also bringing in our beautification group to assist with the overtime," said Ybarra.