Denver International Airport has ended a contract with a private contractor to clear snow from airport parking lots and is buying about $2 million worth of equipment from the private venture so city employees can perform the work.
Wednesday, the Denver City Council’s Economic Development Committee approved the acquisition of 31 plows and loaders from Snow-Go, the contractor, and Caterpillar Financial, which holds liens on the equipment, said Brian Elms, DIA’s assistant director of government affairs.
The equipment is used to clear snow from about 300 acres of parking lots used by air travelers and airport employees.
DIA’s contract with Snow-Go called for the airport to pay the contractor a base amount of $2.7 million a year and a steep “premium” above that if snow totals exceeded 30 inches for the season or if Snow-Go crews were used for more than 125 hours, said Dan Brown, interim deputy manager of maintenance at DIA.
The new arrangement, using city employees for the task, will give DIA more flexibility in tailoring the deployment of snow-removal workers to the severity of the storm, Elms said.
Last week, Denver officials said 25 employees from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department will train to do work at the airport over the next six months, including parking lot snow-removal.
The temporary relocation of workers “saves city positions that might have been subject to layoffs in what is normally a slow time for Parks and Recreation workers,” the city said.
The “seasonal reassignment” of those employees will save that department about $700,000.
Money DIA will spend on them would have gone to the Snow-Go contract, the city said.
