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In hopes of saving money, Palm Coast officials agreed Tuesday to bring a majority of the city’s lawn maintenance work in-house.

Currently, the city has a contract agreement with Fox Landscaping Inc., which was agreed to about five years ago.

Earlier this year, in February, the City Council via a 4-1 vote extended its contract with Fox Landscaping for the first of two one-year extensions. City Councilman Bill McGuire was the lone no vote, stating at the time that he thought the city could do the work cheaper by bringing the work in-house.

Streets Superintendent Tony Capela presented another plan to the City Council this week. According to Capela’s presentation, the city would hire seven new employees.

Annual labor, equipment and landscaping costs would be about $408,430, plus an additional $150,000 for initial equipment investment, totaling $558,430 for the first year.

Fox’s contact will expire in May, according to the city. Then, the money to begin the work in-house would be represented in next fiscal year’s budget.

According to Capela’s presentation, the total annual labor cost would be $324,845.

Equipment would need to be purchased, too, such as four pickups, three mower trailers, four mowers and other miscellaneous items totaling about $83,585 per year.

The money for the pickup trucks and the trailers will come from cash from the city’s fleet fund, City Manager Jim Landon said.  

Mayor Jon Netts said hiring another crew could be beneficial to the city in times of natural disasters, emergencies and special events.

“Even if it was a breakeven, you’re ahead of the game because you have seven more employees that you can redeploy during down time and times of emergency,” Netts said.

City Councilman Jason DeLorenzo said earlier this year that the prices Capela presented were consistent with Fox’s contract. In a follow-up interview Wednesday, DeLorenzo stood by what he said earlier this year.

“If it’s cost-effective to bring it in, then I don’t really have a problem with it,” DeLorenzo said. “But without going out for bid, I don’t know that we are going to realize those savings because it’s a different time then when that contract was signed — which is four years old.”

DeLorenzo didn’t have much support in taking the contract out to bid, though, and the city will take over the landscaping work.

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