The cost of cleaning up trees and other debris after superstorm Sandy blew through Westlake left the city with a big bill to pay.

City Council appropriated $104,000 to its forestry account at Thursday's meeting to make up for what it has to spend on cleanup.

Finance director Prashant Shah said that $96,000 of that is for personnel costs, including regular salary as well as overtime. The other $14,000 is for supplies and other expenses related to the cleanup.

Service director Paul Quinn III said on Wednesday that city crews have had to deal with about 4,000 cubic yards of brush after the storm. On average, the city cleans up 5,000 cubic yards of brush for the entire year.

After Thursday's meeting, Quinn said that the city spends about $190,000 per year on brush removal.

"Basically, we're doing almost a year's worth of work in a very short time," he said. "And it takes a lot of manpower to do that."