The city of Arnold is restocking its salt supply in case we have any more snow events and roads need to be cleared. It also will have a new roof installed on the Public Works building and remove trees to allow a road project to start this year.
City Council members voted unanimously Jan. 16 to approve the three expenditures that total $141,231.67.
Arnold will pay $65,557.50 for 750 tons of salt. It will spend $49,074.17 to replace the roof and $26,600 for 34 trees to be removed from along Lonedell Road.
Salt
City Administrator Bryan Richison said Arnold used approximately 1,000 tons of salt to clear roads following heavy snow falls on Jan. 6 and Jan. 10. After those snowfalls, the city had about 1,500 tons of salt in its reserves.
Typically, the city administrator does not approve expenditures exceeding $10,000 without a council vote, but Richison told council members he approved the expenditure before the Jan. 16 meeting because there was a deadline to order salt through the St. Louis Metro APWA Salt Cooperative.
Arnold is part of the co-op, which is made up of 49 cities and eight school districts that combine their purchasing power to obtain the best price possible for deicing salt. The salt is purchased from Compass Minerals, and the co-op is coordinated by the city of Chesterfield.
Co-op members may order salt twice a year through the agreement. For the current agreement, members had to order salt by Aug. 15, 2024, to receive salt between Oct. 1 and Dec. 2, and by Jan. 15 to receive salt between Feb. 1 and March 1.
“Because the deadline occurred before this meeting and I did not want to risk being caught without salt, I went ahead and approved (the salt purchase),” Richison told the council. “Tonight, on your agenda is a resolution to ratify that purchase.”
Richison praised Public Work employees and other city staff members for their responses to the recent winter storms.
“Our snow crews work long hours in difficult conditions, and I appreciate their effort and dedication,” he said. “The major roads in town are our first priority; then we start working on the subdivision streets. I’m sure there are times residents would like their subdivision streets to be plowed sooner, but if the major roads are not cleared first, they won’t get very far. I understand that some residents get frustrated by the extra snow that is pushed to the end of their driveways, but the snow has to go somewhere to clear the streets. No one is perfect, so streets are missed sometimes, but the snow crews respond as quickly as they can when we are notified about oversights.
“I would be remiss if I did not also commend our employees who answer the phones during our snow operations and our mechanics who keep the trucks running.”
Roof
James Pogorzelski, interim Public Works director, said the roof at the department’s building, 2900 Arnold Tenbrook Road, was installed in 2012.
He said the front curtain wall on that building was damaged during a storm last summer.
“That is when we first noticed the leak inside and upon further investigation, it was determined that the curtain wall was actually ripped from the roof in the high winds,” he said. “Since this is a membrane-type roof, it is recommended to replace the entire roof.”
City documents show John Beal Roofing of Maryland Heights submitted the lowest of three bids.
In an email to city staff, Judy Wagner said four companies inspected the roof, but only three submitted bids. Wagner recently retired as Arnold’s Public Works director, but she is still employed on a part-time basis by the city.
She also said in the email that it would take about eight weeks after the contract is approved for John Beal to begin the project.
Pogorzelski said the work is expected to start in mid-March or early April, and the project is expected to be completed in about 10 days.
Richison told the council that the city had budgeted $80,000 for the roof replacement.
Pogorzelski said the money Arnold saved may be used for other roof projects at Public Works.
“As always, we are very happy when lower bids are received,” he said. “We also budgeted a roof over the material bins in the rear of the Public Works site. These bids may be a little higher than originally budgeted.”
Trees
Richison told the council the trees along Lonedell Road need to be removed because northern long-eared and Indiana bats use those trees to roost.
He said the roosting season for the bats is March 31 through Oct. 1, and if the city didn’t remove the trees before the start of the roosting season, the trees could not be removed until after Oct. 1.
Richison said normally the contractor hired to do a road project would remove the trees, but the city was not scheduled to open bids for the project until Jan. 22.
Richison said on Jan. 17, the city hoped to see the trees removed in the subsequent two weeks.
“We didn’t want to take the risk,” Richison told the council of the project being delayed due to the bats roosting in the trees. “We identified the trees that are the ones the bats like.”
Richison said the city recommended hiring TJ’s Landscaping and Tree Service of Arnold because the company had handled the last two citywide brush pickups and had done a lot of work in the city’s parks.
“We have had great luck with them,” he said. “We would like to do this ASAP, so we don’t take the risk of delaying the project until after Oct. 1. To be clear, there will be other trees that will be removed later.”
In 2023, Arnold received a Surface Transportation Block Grant from the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council of Governments to help fund the estimated $2 million project for Lonedell Road.
The project includes widening the lanes from 9 1/2 feet to 11 feet; resurfacing the roadway; putting in stormwater pipes and enclosing the open drainage ditches along the side of the road; installing curbing gutters with inlets to collect water to filter through the pipes to a nearby creek; building a 6-foot sidewalk on one of side of the road; doing work on sharp hills on the road to lessen blind spots; and posting signs reminding drivers to share the road with bicyclists.
When Arnold received the grant, Wagner said the city would pay about $637,000 for the work and the grant is expected to cover the remaining costs.
Richison said the project is expected to be completed this year.
“It is hard to predict what the start date will be because in addition to City Council approval, we will also need approval from (the Missouri Department of Transportation),” he said.