Subcommittee approves $400,000 contract for remediation of fentanyl-contaminated properties

The Public Health and Safety Subcommittee approved moving a three-year, $400,000 contract to formal consideration to provide cleanup, remediation and decontamination services for public-hazard properties, with city engineers saying the work will allow safe access to sites flagged by police as contaminated with fentanyl.

Luan Counts, group executive of construction and building operations, described the contract’s purpose: “The main focus of this particular contract...allows us the ability to actually go in and clean up sites, that have been determined to have been contaminated with fentanyl,” he said, adding that since the brigade began in February 2016 the city has encountered “3, maybe 4 properties where fentanyl has been a concern.”

Counts and procurement staff said the contract (three-year, awarded to Bio Clean Team of Porterville, Michigan) will also cover cleanup of other hazardous material concerns including methamphetamine contamination and mold remediation when needed. Counts explained that the city will not send staff or general contractors into a site identified by police until a qualified remediation vendor has contained and clarified safety conditions.

Subcommittee members pressed on scale and cost estimates. Counts said per-property costs vary with the level of contamination and site conditions; he said the contract provides a preapproved vendor that enables the city to respond quickly, rather than restarting procurement for individual emergency events. The subcommittee approved sending the item to formal with a recommendation to approve; the motion was adopted with no recorded objection.

Speakers quoted in this article are drawn from the meeting transcript and include city construction and procurement staff.