Wilmington to spend $168,000 to clean city decks

The Market Street parking deck shown Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in Wilmington.

A list of numbers for the city's parking decks/vehicle capacity is available at the end of this article.

It's been more than four years since some of Wilmington's parking decks were last power washed. Worry not, though: Spray is on the way.

The city has plans to spend $168,000 on a three-year contract with a company that will spray its decks annually.

Yet Councilwoman Laura Padgett, who has complained about the state of the decks, said the decks should be cleaned more than once a year.

"This won't take care of the weekly yuck that gets applied to the decks," Padgett said at a Monday agenda briefing.

On Tuesday, the council will consider authorizing a contract with a Georgia firm that would power wash the Second Street, Market Street, Water Street and convention center decks.

For 2014, Clean Recover Inc. of Roswell, Ga., would bill $62,400 to clean the four decks. In the following two years, the firm would clean those decks, minus the Water Street facility, for $52,800 annually.

Clean Recover was the only company to bid for the work. The cleaning offer ranges in cost from $26 to $43 per parking space in the decks, according to the city. Though that amount is lower than what it costs Greensboro to do similar cleaning ($35 a space to $44 a space), according to the city.

Due to budget cuts, the city's decks were last power washed in the summer of 2009. This year's city budget includes a 14 percent increase in parking operating expenses to cover the costs for pressure washing, along with painting work and purchasing trash cans and cigarette butt urns.

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Wilmington to spend $168,000 to clean city decks