The Town Council has approved a contract with Offsite Sweeping to provide street sweeping services for the Town of Fountain Hills.

Public Works Director Justin Weldy explained the agreement to the council, saying it is an extension of a contract the company has with the City of Mesa.

The cost is $90,000 per year for one year with an option for two additional years as the same cost, totaling $270,000.

The agreement calls for arterial streets to be swept every two weeks and residential streets will be cleaned every 8 weeks. Weldy said this is the same level of service the town has had in the past.

The contract also covers emergency and storm clean-up services as needed as well as necessary reporting data needed for the town’s storm water and air quality permits.

Councilman David Spelich asked for information about the town doing the work in-house instead of contacting.

Weldy said the town did its own sweeping at one time. He said the cost of two sweepers would be about $250,000 to $300,000 each, and the town would need to have staff to operate the equipment.

He also said sweeping requires a “decant station,” which is equipment to offload debris and separate contaminated water from the dirt. Weldy said a decant station had a price tag of $285,000 when the town installed one 10 years ago when it was doing its own sweeping, which is now gone. Weldy said then both the water and debris would need to be transported to a special disposal station, which he said he believes is in Maricopa, Ariz. That transport would be a significant additional cost.

The council approved the agreement with a unanimous 7-0 vote.