With the threat of more snow in the coming weeks, at least 15 communities in the Pioneer Valley chose to go with the lone company on the state bid list for debris clean-up: Florida-based AshBritt, which is known for its disaster work.
The last load of storm debris at the Palmer leaf pit on Old Warren Road is loaded up by Rocky Mountain Wood Company on Dec. 15After a nor’ easter pummeled the region just two days before Halloween, communities in Western Massachusetts were left with more than the usual snowy mess to deal with. Trees, still full of leaves, toppled by the heavy snow, were littering the public ways.
With the threat of more snow in the coming weeks, at least 15 communities in the Pioneer Valley chose to go with the lone company on the state bid list for debris clean-up: Florida-based AshBritt Inc., which is known for its disaster work.
Many feared it could take weeks before they could start cleaning up the debris if they put the work out to bid themselves.
Now, as the clean-up from the historic snowstorm is wrapping up, communities are dealing with how to pay for it.
For some, the cost is in the millions, and they are hopeful that the president will issue a disaster declaration, which would open up funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, allowing it to reimburse 75 percent.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick recently sent a letter to President Barack H. Obama requesting the federal disaster declaration for the commonwealth.
In Monson, town officials grew concerned as storm clean-up costs mounted, and warned of a worst-case scenario of a government shutdown for two years if no federal or state assistance came through. Monson, still in recovery mode after the June 1 tornado ravaged the town, racked up a $2.5 million bill for the October snowstorm.
Monson, along with Chicopee, Springfield, Longmeadow, West Springfield, Ludlow, Holyoke, Wilbraham, Agawam, Holland, Palmer, Wales, Southwick, Ware and Warren, hired AshBritt. Monson was familiar with the company, which also worked in the town after the June 1 tornado.
“We didn’t have time to go out to bid. There was concern about snow. We had no other choice,” said Monson chief procurement officer Gretchen Neggers.
“I personally would be an advocate for the state to review that contract. A little competition goes a long way,” Neggers added. “I am confident they will be reviewing it.”
Neggers said at $31 per cubic yard, she thinks AshBritt’s prices were high. Monson had approximately 35,000 cubic yards of debris, as well as approximately 5,5000 “hangers” (dangling tree limbs that needed to be removed), and nearly 200 leaning trees that had to be taken away.
Plus, there was the cost of the monitor, O’Brien’s Response Management, also of Florida, and also on the state bid list, that oversaw the process. Many of the communities that used Ashbritt also hired O’Brien’s.
Neggers said AshBritt stands to make millions from the snowstorm and tornado clean-up. “Our tax dollars,” she said, going out of state. While costly, she said AshBritt did “great work” for the town.
“The quality of work is nothing I would question,” she said.
Monson recently ended its contract with AshBritt, turning over the remaining work to the town’s highway department in an effort to save money.
In Palmer, interim Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said storm clean-up cost $2.2 million; Palmer had 50,000 cubic yards of debris.
“Obviously we are very concerned about the cost of the storm, but clean-up was necessary,” said Blanchard, adding that either so-called “free cash” will be used or borrowing will be authorized to pay for the remaining 25 percent after FEMA provides funding.
Blanchard hopes the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency steps in and provides part of the funding for the 25 percent.
As of Dec. 7, Longmeadow had 285,000 cubic yards of debris picked up, one of the largest amounts, at a cost of approximately $12 million.
“It was ridiculously devastating. Nearly every street was obstructed,” Town Manager Robin L. Crosbie said. “To do it on our own would be inconceivable.”
Crosbie said she is confident a presidential declaration will be issued to help the communities pay for the storm. She said AshBritt had the experience needed to document the clean-up, something FEMA requires. Criticism of the selection of AshBritt was voiced in the Longmeadow News by Alex Grant, but Crosbie said she personally got nothing but positive feedback.
Grant, a lawyer, said, “It’s a little hard looking in from the outside” regarding the cost of the work. Grant, in his column, cited the company’s post-Hurricane Katrina work, and how it paid the subcontractors substantially less than the price it was charged.
AshBritt’s general counsel and executive vice president of business development, Jared E. Moskowitz, said like other companies, AshBritt is in the business of making money. He would not say how much the subcontractors – which are brought in from all over the country – were paid, saying it is proprietary information, as was how they arrive at the cost per yard.
“Our numbers have to allow us the ability to perform and perform in an emergency. We are mindful of city, county and state budgets right now and our numbers take that into account,” Moskowitz said.
“Somebody has to clean this up .. At the end of the day, the debris will stay on the ground if someone doesn’t pick it up,” he said.
In Holyoke, William D. Fuqua, general superintendent of the Holyoke Department of Public Works, said the city contracted with AshBritt for debris removal and O’Brien’s Response Management for monitoring and documentation of the clean-up. Fuqua said Holyoke’s bill is approximately $4 million, and whatever is not covered by FEMA may be funded through cash reserves or borrowing.
In Wilbraham, Town Administrator Robert A. Weitz said there was more than 106,000 cubic yards of debris to clean up, at a cost of approximately $5 million. Wilbraham, like Monson, used AshBritt after the tornado. Weitz said the damage was too severe to just use town crews.
Springfield’s clean-up cost is $25 million to $30 million, said Thomas T. Walsh, communications director for the city. Walsh said if the city did not hire AshBritt, “streets would still be closed.”
Agawam Mayor Richard A. Cohen said his city used AshBritt because it is on a list of contractors approved by the state so that work could start right away rather than having to put the job out to bid.
As of Dec. 14, Cohen said the city had spent $4.68 million on clean-up. Workers had collected about 139,000 cubic yards of debris.
“This was just astronomical,” Cohen said of the cost of the disaster. “This storm was epic.”
AshBritt workers, who are on break for the holidays, will return Jan. 3 to remove remaining hanging tree limbs and make another sweep of the city to pick up debris people have left curbside, the mayor said
Cohen said he is hopeful of possibly getting some aid from the state. Whatever it ends up costing Agawam can be covered from available funds, the mayor said.
In West Springfield, Mayor Edward J. Gibson said the city’s cost of the clean-up is $4.5 million to $5 million and that he, too, is hopeful about a FEMA reimbursement.
The remainder of the costs would have to come from the city’s free cash or its stabilization fund, according to Gibson.
Like other communities in the area, West Springfield used AshBritt for cleaning up debris because it could piggyback onto the state’s contract. That way work could start right away rather than officials having to go through the lengthy process of putting it out to bid, according to Department of Public Works Director Jack L. Dowd.
Dowd said 98 percent of the city’s share of the clean-up is finished, but that some public works crews are still combing through the community to pick up any of the remaining debris property owners put out at curbside for collection.
Chicopee, which ended its contract with AshBritt in early December, is estimating it will cost nearly $6 million to clean up after the Oct. 29 snowstorm. Already the City Council has approved spending $1 million from its $5.9 free cash surplus and is examining a proposal from Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette to approve another $4 million.
Any reimbursements will be deposited into the city’s stabilization account.
A private company was hired to collect brush from city property, and from residents who left fallen limbs on the tree belts. It collected about 153,000 cubic yards of downed limbs before it finished the first week of December.
The Department of Public Works is continuing to collect scattered brush throughout the city and is now working on cleaning up parks and the Chicopee Municipal Golf Course.
In Ludlow, Board of Selectmen Chairman Aaron L. Saunders said the storm cost $3 million to $3.5 million. Saunders said public safety was the first priority, and the community did not have the resources in-house to clean the debris itself, so it hired AshBritt.
"We needed the type of outfit that could do the job," Saunders said.
Towns that did not use AshBritt spent considerably less on the storm clean-up.
Carol M. DelNegro, the selectmen’s assistant in Brimfield, said the town used the same company as it did after the tornado, Jennifer M. Cook Inc. in Upton. She said the quote for the work was $220,000; it did not cover removing debris from private property, however.
“We did it our way and it has cost us a lot less money,” DelNegro said, adding that Cook did a “phenomenal job.” She said the town got around using AshBritt because it applied for an emergency waiver from the state Division of Capital Asset Management, allowing it to get cost estimates for the work quickly.
In East Longmeadow, John F. Maybury, a member of the Board of Public Works, said the town estimates the cost of the storm clean-up to be less than $1 million.
“We don’t know the exact figures just yet, but we were able to save a lot of money by using our own employees and local contractors,” he said.
The town used all of its Department of Public Works employees and equipment to clean up the bulk of the snow and fallen trees. They also worked with ArborTech Tree Services LLC in East Longmeadow, to do the after-storm clean-up.
“I am extremely proud of the employees for working long hours to get the job done. By using local resources we were able to save a lot of money,” Maybury said.
As far as reimbursement from the state, Maybury said whatever money is left for the town to pay will go through the regular Town Meeting process.
Northampton also opted to perform the clean-up itself, according to Edward S. Huntley, the director of the city’s Department of Public Works.
Huntley estimated the clean-up costs for Northampton at $50,000 to $60,000. All of the city’s streets have already been cleared, he said. The only task that remains is cleaning up the bike paths, a job he expects his crews to complete soon.
In Amherst, officials believe storm clean-up will cost about $42,000, said Town Manager John P. Musante.
The town hired Wagner Wood to help with removal through the bid process, and used money from the public works budget to pay the costs.
“We’ve been monitoring it very carefully to see what shortfalls (there might be,)” he said. The town expects to have things cleaned up within the next few weeks. It is also offering residents the opportunity, for a fee, to have their tree debris picked up as well and taken to the transfer station.
In Easthampton, Mayor Michael Tautznik said he expects the city will spend about $200,000 in clean-up costs. The city has done all the work with town crews. “It’s much more expensive (to hire).”
He said that most of the debris has been picked up, but they have not yet ground what they collected and need about $50,000 for that. “We don’t have the cash resources,” he said. But, he said, it’s out of the way and can be dealt with later.
Belchertown Town Administrator Gary L. Brougham said a combination of the town’s public works employees and outside contractors were used on the storm response. Brougham said they used companies with which the town already had existing contracts, and estimated the cost of clean-up at approximately $500,000. He said the employees started the clean-up the day after the Oct. 29 snowstorm and didn’t stop. Belchertown was one of the hardest hit communities, where power was out for a week or more.
“We oftentimes take the path less traveled,” Brougham said, adding that Belchertown too could have racked up a multi-million-dollar bill using a different method.
Staff writers Fred Contrada, Jeanette Deforge, Sandra Constantine, Elizabeth Roman, Michael Plaisance and Diane Lederman contributed to this report.