Norwalk : Landscaping Budget Cut; New Contractor Hired

The Norwalk City Council on Tuesday voted to reduce the amount it spends on public landscaping by $150,000 a year. The council also voted to hire a new landscaping contractor to tend the city’s parks and medians.

Landscape West of Anaheim won the contract to weed, fertilize and plant greenery on the 100 acres of medians, parks and civic center lawns for $154,828 a year.

Landscape West will replace Murray’s Landscape of Santa Fe Springs in three months. Murray’s, which had been Norwalk’s landscaping contractor since June, 1990, bid $302,838. In all, 14 companies bid for the contract.

At first, the city was paying Murray’s $409,000 a year. But the City Council voted last August to reduce spending on the landscaping contract to $305,000 a year, said Sanford Groves, assistant city manager.