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Board advances Snow Removal St. Louis as primary contractor for winter service; council schedules final contract meeting
Summary
Public Works presented three bids for residential and municipal snow removal and recommended Snow Removal St. Louis on the basis of GPS tracking, manpower and operational readiness. The board voted to advance that vendor to contract negotiations and to hold a special meeting to finalize terms including salt use and service area coverage.
The Fenton Board of Aldermen advanced Snow Removal Saint Louis Oct. 2 as the primary contractor to provide residential and industrial snow-plowing services for the upcoming winter season and agreed to hold a special meeting to finalize the contract.
Public Works Director Dan Howard told the committee the department is understaffed for the coming winter and that two of six current employees have prior snow-plow experience. Staff recommended contracting most subdivision/residential and some industrial clearing to an outside vendor while public works crews focus on main arterial roads. The recommended firm was Snow Removal Saint Louis; staff cited the company's GPS-equipped trucks and demonstrated ability to staff the work as reasons for the recommendation.
Vendor representative Mike Davis told the board his firm needs early direction to allocate trucks and salt and emphasized that logistics (where salt is staged and truck staging) affect response times. Davis said his operation is based at a yard that holds salt and equipment; he cautioned that mixing multiple staging points would complicate operations.
Board members discussed training opportunities for new public-works employees and how city crews could ride along with the contractor to learn residential plowing techniques. Some aldermen said they would prefer in-house crews if staffing increases next year; staff said that was a longer-term solution and that this winter the city lacks enough experienced drivers and CDL-qualified operators to safely staff all routes.
The board voted to advance negotiations with Snow Removal Saint Louis and to convene a special meeting before the next regular board date to approve final contract terms, including program scope, salt usage and final pricing.
Speakers named in this article are included in the article's speaker list below and quoted from the meeting transcript where indicated.
