ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Pete’s Hometown Recovery Haulers helped put a dent into the city’s massive debris cleanup efforts. The people who participated said it had an impact that’s bigger than any debris pile.

The program was a short-term recovery effort made up of 100 small business owners and city residents who collected storm debris in the city of St. Pete.

Hometown Recovery Haulers was not only meant to clean the streets, but it was also to serve as an economic boost. Those who participated earned $300 for every load of storm debris. The loads were dropped at temporary dump sites.

City officials said they approved 5,247 hauls for a total program cost of $1,574,100.

Antwan Wells owns Community Resources and Solutions, a construction company, and said after seeing the damage and debris, he had to be part of the project.

“It was life changing for those that were helping, as well as those that took a loss. Those that took a loss, once again, they lost a lot of essentials — clothes, shoes, furniture, a lot of pictures and what have you. So that was very, very impactful,” Wells said.

Ronald Gibson’s construction company, Good & Efficient Services, was also one of the participants in the program. He said the cleanup efforts allowed him to hire even more people from the community.

“I got up to I believe 20 to 25 people, that we helped 25 different homes we put income in,” he said. “I just looked at it that way. I wanted to help as many people as possible because this was a once in a lifetime thing and I knew the holidays were coming up and people were struggling.”

In addition to the Hometown Recovery Haulers Program, Spectrum News was told in the city of St. Pete, more than 60 city trucks were used to collect debris along with more than 60 contracted debris haulers were used to collect debris.