It was just too
good a deal to let go: a $45,000 trade-in value on a 10-year old
Freightliner grapple truck.
So Chesterton
Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg reported to the Town Council at its
meeting Monday night.
That trade-in will
drop the cost of a brand-new grapple truck--selling for $150,000--down to
$105,000, which is roughly what the Street Department paid when it acquired
the Freightliner some years ago.
At Schnadenberg’s
request, members voted unanimously to approve the four-year lease-purchase
of the new grapple truck with the trade-in, using CEDIT moneys to make the
annual payments. Schnadenberg noted that the Street Department has just
finished paying off the cost of a second grapple truck, and the new payments
will simply be slotted into its budget.
“We use the grapple
trucks just about every day,” he said.
Member Lloyd
Kittredge, R-2nd, did take a moment to make the obvious observation, that
you don’t get a $45,000 trade-in credit for a lousy piece of equipment. “I
think it says a lot about the way the Street Department maintains its
equipment that they could get that good a trade-in for the truck.”
Member Bob Allison,
D-3rd, concurred. “People in this town really don’t understand the little
things our employees do to keep equipment top-notch,” he said. “It shows how
important our employees are in maintaining the equipment.”
Declared Surplus
In other business,
and again at Schnadenberg’s request, members voted unanimously to declare as
surplus the Street Department’s 2003 International bucket truck, and to
accept sealed bids from the public for its purchase.
Schnadenberg told
the council that the 2003 bucket truck was replaced last year, and he would
prefer not to wait until the annual municipal auction in the fall to sell
it.
Waiver Request
Meanwhile, members
voted unanimously to take under advisement--pending staff review--Brian
Lewandowski’s petition for two waivers from the Town Standard requiring the
installation of a sidewalk in front of all new construction.
Lewandowski is
building two duplexes at 22nd Street and Westchester Ave.; and another at
20th and Westchester.