Eldridge will hire a grinder to dismantle the storm debris mountain piling up near Eldridge’s Buttermilk Road soccer fields.
Council members hired Joe Sundholm’s G & H Construction of Pleasant Valley to use a tub grinder to reduce the debris and turn it into mulch that could be sold.
Sundholm estimated a cost of $16,000 to $22,000, depending in part on the marketability of the mulch.
Keith Schneckloth lined up the contract and said it would take three days to grind and load the mulch.
Kotter said she expects FEMA will reimburse much of the city’s cost.
“There was some discussion of burning, but we didn’t think that would be a pleasant experience, especially with a major housing addition to the east,” she said.