Public works seeks budget amendment after storm cleanup; director cites 600 overtime hours and heavy road repairs

At the July 28 Lehi City Council work session, Don Josh Pilutti, acting director of public works, presented RL25-122, an ordinance to amend the 2025 budget to increase lines for overtime and construction materials.

Piluitti said a recent storm produced extensive debris and that staff logged “over 600 hours of overtime” to clear streets, including work through the Fourth of July weekend. “The whole few weeks after that, they'd work a full shift and stay between 2 and 4 hours over to try and finish getting all the debris off the streets,” he said, citing emergency cleanup as the principal driver of the overtime request. He also said scheduled events through the summer and fall — Porchfest, Garlicfest, Luma, Blues on the Bridge, Bowling University parents weekend and the Columbus Day Parade — require overtime for traffic and event work.

On materials, Pilutti said crews have completed roughly 25 to 30 large pavement “digouts” (areas typically 30 by 20 to 30 by 50 feet in which crews remove pavement and 12–14 inches of subbase) and estimated five or six very large digouts remain. He asked for additional construction-material funds for patching and for traffic-sign materials and paint. Pilutti said the city’s new sign-making machine has produced “over a 150 new signs” and that ladder-style (hashed) crosswalks require more paint; he said the department is on track to paint as much as 90 to 100 percent of city streets this year.

Council members asked how signs had been made previously; Pilutti said the city purchased pre-made signs and that the new machine reduces cost by allowing the department to strip and remake existing signs. A resident thanked staff for responding to sign requests.

No formal council vote on the ordinance was recorded in the work session transcript.