PORTAGE | The May 15 microburst that caused trees to tumble throughout the city will cost taxpayers in excess of $150,000.

The Board of Works on Monday approved bidding out a contract to remove a limb and tree pile at the street department on Hamstrom Road.

The pile, said Street Superintendent Steve Charnetzky, is about 600 feet long by 175 feet wide and 15 feet tall. This is the only time in his tenure that the city has had to seek an outside contractor to chip down such a large pile.

Charnetzky estimated the contract would cost in excess of $50,000. In addition to that cost, he said, if you add in overtime, equipment and supplies used to clean up the storm's aftermath, it would be another $100,000.

He said every employee was on cleanup detail for three weeks after the storm and the department is still sending out eight to 10 dump trucks, a chipper and payloader each day to pick up remnants of the storm.

Charnetzky said he had hoped to be able to apply for a state or federal emergency management grant to help recoup the cost from the cleanup like municipalities are allowed to do after a snowstorm. He said the city applied and has been approved to receive some $60,000 in reimbursement from the federal government for a mid-February storm.

However, he said, a federal agency representative came to the city at Mayor Doug Olson's request after the May storm to survey the damage and determined there wasn't significant enough damage in the city to warrant any reimbursement.