SUPERIOR, Colo. (KDVR) — On Monday afternoon, some debris removal equipment in Superior was standing still, silent among a swath of burned-out homes in Old Town Superior.

The town ordered them to stop removing debris until cleanup permits are granted.

Several people told FOX31 they are tired of waiting for permits to start the cleanup. They say there is a lot of governmental bureaucratic red tape that is making the pain they’ve suffered even worse.

In a workshop Monday, trustees said the town had just issued its first permit for private debris removal.

Part of what kept the process “is understanding what all needs to happen, and I think I’ve got that defined,” Superior Trustee Neal Shah said after the meeting.

The permits allow homeowners to privately hire contractors to clean their lots. It’s a huge step needed to begin rebuilding their homes.

Elizabeth Kupfner’s family has gotten permission from the state to remove old cars. But the Town of Superior and Boulder County’s permitting process to do the rest, Kupfner said,  is painfully slow.

“A lot of the frustration comes from the length of time from the incident to actually getting the approval to actually get rid of rid of what they call fire debris, which is ash and the structural debris,” Kupfner said.

A large number of people will depend on FEMA and the county to remove potentially hazardous debris. Trustee Shah said the county is to blame. It’s the reason equipment is standing still.

“They (Boulder County) should have been moving much faster. They should have been more responsive. It’s a county-driven process,” Shah said.

Boulder County told FOX31 that recommendations to hire a debris removal contractor could come this week. Cleanup schedules will come after that. But no one really knows when that will be.