To clear out the crosshatched mess of tree limbs and branches that crashed onto Wilmington lawns in last week’s ice storm, the city council on Tuesday approved $600,000 for a contractor’s help.
“Our current estimates are about 50,000 cubic yards of debris that’s out on the street” in Wilmington’s limits, Deputy City Manager Tony Caudle reiterated. He’d informed council members the previous morning of the unanticipated expense.
As unanimously approved, it’s coming from the city’s general fund balance, which is treated like a savings account, and being transferred to its solid waste fund for payment to DRC Emergency Services LLC of Mobile, Ala., to clear and dispose of the debris.
That company was the low bidder in a contract put in place last year. Its rate is $9 per cubic yard.
Caudle noted the figure approved Tuesday includes a 20 percent contingency supplement.
“The reason I did this,” he said, “is because I wanted to make sure that we didn’t wind up in the middle of the debris operation having to tell the contractor to wait until council met again and [approved an] additional allocation.”
Bringing on DRC would mean a remarkable difference in cleanup time, according to the city.
A bulletin Monday explained that city’s staffers, on their own and pulled off of their regular duties, would take about 17 weeks. The contractor’s timeframe would be as little as five weeks.
New Hanover County is using the same contractor for the unincorporated areas.
On that note, Councilwoman Laura Padgett was not pleased the city was in the position of spending to remove the debris in its limits when Wilmington property owners pay county property taxes as well.
“We as city residents are being asked to come up with $600,000 to pay to remove debris in the city,” she said, “while our county tax dollars are going to remove debris only for people who don’t live in the city.”
She posed that the county should handle the task countywide–towns and all.
“Since this is a special circumstance, the whole county has debris down, we are all county taxpayers….”
