Funds all set, LR kick-starts storm cleanup

City manager gets go to hire contractor for $3 million job

Little Rock will move quickly to hire a contractor to oversee the removal of almost 20,000 tons of debris remaining from the Christmas Day snowstorm that knocked out power across the state and left seven counties with federal disaster declarations, officials said.

The Little Rock Board of Directors passed a resolution Tuesday to allow City Manager Bruce Moore to move forward with awarding a contract for the estimated $3 million in cleanup work remaining without returning to the board for approval. City rules normally require Moore to seek board approval before signing contracts or purchasing services valued at $50,000 or more.

Assistant Public Works Director Ronny Loe said bids for the contract are due by Friday afternoon and the city is forming a committee to examine the bids. The first review will make sure the companies have enough manpower, equipment and experience for the city’s needs and the second process will review the monetary bids for the companies that are deemed qualified.

Moore said he hopes to have a contract awarded by the end of next week.

“We’ll continue our cleanup operation until the contractor gets on board fully,” he said. “People will still see crews out six days a week and 10-hour days until the contractor is up and running.”

The city got word Jan. 29 that President Barack Obama had declared a federal disaster in Pulaski County and six other counties — Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Lonoke, Perry and Saline — which made them eligible for funding for emergency work and repair of damaged public facilities.

Moore began the disasterdeclaration process the day after the storm. The complete declaration process, including the governor’s declaration asking for about $9.3 million in federal aid for all of the counties and the eventual federal declaration, took about 35 days. The city issued a request for bids with a shorter deadline than usual to get the process moving.

“We had estimated if we were to do this work by ourselves that it would take about 200 days,” Moore said. “I hesitate at this point to say how long a contractor will take to do this work because it’s something that we will

negotiate through the award process. But it will be a significant improvement to our timeline.

“They have larger equipment, they are dedicated to only performing this work and it’s in their interest to get it done and move on to the next job.”

Loe said city crews are working in every ward to pick up debris and had, as of the beginning of this week, picked up about 4,700 tons.

Moore said it will be up to the winning contractor to decide how to move forward, but said the cleanup likely will be similar to the cleanup after the 2000 ice storm. During that storm, the contractor hired subcontractors and local companies and individuals and paid those workers a set rate per ton of debris collected.

“We anticipate that they’ll do that again, but again, we’re awarding a contract to the contractor, not to the individual subcontractors,” Moore said.

The city has been keeping track of all post-storm expenditures, including overtime and hours spent cleaning up. Under the federal disaster declaration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover 75 percent of the cost and the state will cover about 12.5 percent through its emergency funds. The city will be responsible for the remaining 12.5 percent.

Moore said the city can apply for an advance payment of 25 percent of the estimated cleanup cost, and plans to make that application. He said the city then must submit reimbursement forms for the remaining cleanup costs.