Politics & Government

Sandy Sticks Westlake With $104K Cleanup Bill

City appropriates funds to pay for storm cleanup

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.

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Service director Paul Quinn III said on Wednesday that city crews have had to deal with about . 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.

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"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."


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