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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- While a national road paint shortage remains an issue for many states and communities, Ottumwa should be able to escape without too much trouble.

Ottumwa Public Works Traffic and Electrical Maintenance Supervisor, Brian Lewis, said they order their paint every fall through the Department of Transportation. That was before the paint shortage struck.

“The way that works is we order our quantities in the fall on how much we plan on using. When the DOT gets their shipment in April they distribute it and we get ours,” Lewis said.

This year Lewis said they ordered 80 pails of white paint and 115 pails of yellow paint.

A few weeks ago, Lewis called IDOT inquiring about a few additional five gallon pails.

“We’re ok on all our paint. But I checked to see if we can get more paint through the DOT, all of our paint is through the DOT bid, and they said we couldn’t get any more, so…,” Lewis said.

Lewis said they get five gallon pails at roughly $40 per pail.

Lewis said he ordered a few additional pails from a local paint store to be on the safe side.

He said he didn’t know how much the additional paint would cost them.

KTVO called that store and the retail price per gallon was more than 5 times higher than the DOT rate.  The store did say buying in bulk reduces the price.

Lewis said he doesn’t know what to expect for next year.

“Next year, I don’t know. I heard there were 2 or 3 components of the paint that they were having problems for the ingredients and that’s what’s causing the problem.”

Right now, Lewis said he is more concerned about the rain than the paint supply. He said all the rain has put them weeks behind schedule on painting streets in the City of Bridges.