UPDATE (2/12): The brush pile near a Mercedes school has been cleaned up.

The brush pile near Ruben Hinojosa Elementary has been cleaned up after resident concern.                    

The School District said the brush was a collection of a district-wide tree trimming project.

-------

MERCEDES – Residents are concerned brush piles are plaguing the city of Mercedes.

Velda Garcia says she’s not proud of her hometown the “Queen City” right now.

"It looks ugly in our city, we have visitors that come. We have the outlets, people go to Mexico and they have to pass by this,” says Garcia.

She says a brush pile has been sitting yards from Ruben Hinojosa Elementary school for months.

Garcia says she is worried the pile is putting children’s lives in danger.

"We have kids coming out of that school that can easily light a match and guess what, a fire," she says.

The Mercedes Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Daniel Treviño, Jr. says the property belongs to Mercedes ISD.

Treviño says the area in question is where all the brush is collected from landscaping at all the schools is placed.

District manager Robert Canales says residential brush is picked up around Mercedes once a month.

Superintendent Treviño says the pile will be gone in the next few days.

For more information, watch the video above.