It appears there’s an end in sight for nearly thousands of Marshall Fire victims who have been waiting to have fire-ravaged debris hauled off of their property so that they can start to rebuild.

Boulder County announced Friday that it will finalize the debris removal contract with DRC Emergency Services in a business meeting on Tuesday at noon. The original start date was March 1 and DRC originally said it could complete the process July 1. Boulder authorities say they hope to have the job done as close to that date as possible.

A judge in Boulder County on Friday cleared the way to start the process when he denied a non-profit’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to keep the county from signing the contract. It was a formality, though, as earlier this week, the group, Demanding Integrity in Government Spending (DIGS) removed its request to rebid the contract.

The saga is not over, as Judge Stephen Howard has yet to rule on whether Boulder County violated open meetings laws during the bidding process. Also, he has yet to decide whether DIGS has standing file the lawsuit. Howard pledged to render his decision as soon as possible. He scheduled the next hearing for Wednesday, March 30 at 11 am.

Weary fire victims are starting to get frustrated with how long this process has taken. After two and a half months, debris from upwards of 900 homes is still sitting untouched. Dozens of them have filed for permits to start cleaning up their properties by themselves even though FEMA said it will not reimburse them if they move forward on their own.

The controversy over how the contract was awarded is not over, though, DIGS, which was founded by former FEMA Director Michael Brown, wants to depose members of the evaluation committee and the three Boulder County commissioners to find out what exactly they discussed during at least half a dozen executive sessions which DIGS attorney Chad Williams says were held under a “cloak of secrecy.”  An attorney for Boulder County said in court Friday that the meetings were not recorded.

Who is to blame for the holdup depends on whom you ask. DIGS contends that the lawsuit it filed was not the reason for the stalled debris removal, but the county says it is. Commissioner Matt Jones expressed frustration with the legal challenge in early March when he said in a statement, “It’s frustrating that anyone would want to delay our community’s ability to recover from this devastating wildfire.”

Boulder County Attorney David Hughes argued during Friday’s court hearing that the county did not violate open meeting laws when a team of county staff met because, he said, “The evaluation committee is not considered a public body and did not have the power to make a decision to bind the county no matter what it recommended.” Howard continued the hearing in part because a second group who may have violated the open meetings law, the Boulder County Commissioners, may be considered a public body. There are still questions as to whether their meetings were in violation and thus subject to transparency via the depositions.

The 6.000-acre Marshall fire destroyed 1084 homes Dec. 30, causing $513,212,589 in residential damages.