Firm gets LR storm cleanup contract

Friday, February 15, 2013

— Little Rock signed a contract with Ceres Environmental on Thursday to begin picking up all of the debris from the Christmas Day storm that left the city blanketed in tree limbs.

The company - which has offices in Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Minnesota - was the lowest responsive bidder, offering to pick up debris for $47.44 a ton. The city estimated that it had already picked up about 10 percent of the 22,000 tons of debris lining the streets.

The city was able to purchase the cleanup services at a third of the price estimated when asking for a federal emergency disaster declaration.

The declaration, granted by President Barack Obama at the end of January, means the federal government will reimburse the city for 75 percent of the total cleanup cost. The city and state will each be responsible for 12.5 percent.

City officials said this week that the city likely has already reached its contribution through overtime pay for city crews gathering debris.

The Ceres crews will work seven days a week and are scheduled to have the cleanup finished no later than 160 days from Thursday.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 02/15/2013