Butler to pay Wiest Paving $75K for snow removal
Butler City Council is expected to vote to pay Wiest Paving and Asphalt Products $75,120 for work clearing out snow earlier this year.
The City of Butler was pelted by 11 to 20 inches of snow during a severe snowstorm at the end of January. As a result, the city contacted Wiest Paving in the days after to haul snow out of the city’s Main Street and surrounding business district.
Supervisor Troy Douthett said at a council forum meeting Thursday, March 12, that payment for their work would be up for a vote at the next meeting.
“We signed onto that, so we need to get them paid soon,” he said during the meeting.
Douthett said Wiest Paving actively worked to clear snow for about five days after contracted. He said the city was billed hourly, with separate rates for each piece of equipment Wiest used in the process.
City council also discussed having Wiest Paving do hauling in the city’s neighborhoods during its Jan. 29 meeting, but decided the streets department would attempt to take care of problem areas by itself first.
January’s snowstorm pushed many municipalities, including the city, to the brink of what they could handle. For the city, all five of its plow trucks were operating for 24 hours straight during the initial snowfall.
The work done to manage the snowstorm also resulted in another problem for the city: a salt shortage. Douthett said in February that it got to the point where the road crews were “digging in the back of the bin” for any salt. The city received more salt later that week.
A final vote to pay Wiest for its work is expected at the next Butler City Council meeting at 7 p.m. March 23.
