SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Free is usually best.
The City of Sioux Falls yesterday announced yesterday they will be receiving a donation of 10,000 cubic yards of clean fill dirt from Lloyd Companies.
The dirt from Lloyd's Cascade project will be used to help build the amphitheater for the Levitt Shell, about a block away at west Falls Park.
Both city officials and Lloyd Companies placed the value of the dirt at about $100,000.
But after some checking, KELO.com News has learned that the City of Sioux Falls may have gotten more in value than that amount.
Gordon "Skip" Fossum, manager of Dakota Hardscape Supply in Sioux Falls, said that they'd charge a contractor in the neighborhood of $145,000 for clean fill dirt. But the buyer would have pick it up. Delivery would be $10 to $20 a ton, depending upon the grade of the dirt. He figured the cost at 1.45 tons per cubic yard of dirt.
How heavy a cubic yard of dirt weighs depends on a number of factors, including dampness, organic material, compaction, etc.
Other online sources put the cost to purchase clean fill dirt much higher.
DirtDelivery.com figured the cost at $21.17 per cubic yard of dirt. To purchase that amount based on that bid would cost approiximately $211,700.
So, if anything, officials may have slightly undervalued the donation.
It may be dirt, but that doesn't mean it's cheap.
