Public works received approval to purchase a couple of
pieces of equipment that were budgeted for at the February Council
meeting. These should improve efficiency
and provide for better diversity in operations.
The first piece of equipment approved was a Bobcat 5600 Toolcat. This is a commercial quality utility vehicle
that combines the abilities of a skid steer and an ATV. This piece of equipment will include a 7-foot
Brush Buster Max rough cut mowing deck.
This will be primarily used at the sewer plant. The mowing deck is 2 feet wider than current
equipment and has a greater ability to deal with higher and thicker grass. This allows the ability to reduce the
frequency of mowing. As a Toolcat it has
the ability to use any skid steer attachment.
It is also equipped with a climate controlled enclosed cab to increase
operator safety from environmental hazards present at the sewer plant such as
falling branches, sun exposure and mowing in dusty conditions; something
lacking in current sewer plant mowers. This
equipment will replace the Ex-Mark Laser Z mower and Polaris Ranger at the
sewer plant. The mower will be sold and
the Polaris Ranger will be retained for park’s garbage collection duty. This equipment was purchased through state
bidding at a price of $54,812.
The other piece of equipment approved for purchase was a four-wheel
drive/four-wheel steer lawn tractor with bagger for mowing parks, common
grounds and the Disc Golf Course. The
Disc Golf Course has steep grades and a more capable and safer mower was
needed. Having a bagger increases
efficiency with park operations as leaf pickup operations were largely done by
hand. The equipment to be purchased is a
John Deere X739 four-wheel drive/four-wheel steer lawn tractor with a Cyclone
Rake to handle the leaf bagging operations.
This unit will replace the John Deere M653 zero turn and John Deere 316
mowers which will be sold or traded. $20,000 was budgeted for this purpose and
the cost from state bids was $17,569.32.
These items have been ordered and efforts will be made to
sell the equipment stated using sealed bids.
In the event bids aren’t received or are less than the stated trade in
values they will be trade upon receipt of the new equipment. We continue to look for ways to improve
operations and efficiency and I believe these equipment purchases are a step in
that direction.
