Village street sweeper on it last legs; fix or replace on January meeting agenda

by Dan McClelland

The village’s street sweeper is on its last legs, according to comments at the December village board meeting.

Mayor Mary Fontana opened the discussion of the fate of the aging sweeper that evening, noting the issue had been raised earlier at a village budget workshop.

Superintendent Bob DeGrace told the village leaders that evening: “Our street sweeper is in tough condition. It’s a 2003 Johnson and has 17,000 miles on it. That’s a lot figuring those are miles put on just inside the village. It has 18,000 hours on it which is also a lot,”

“It’s used in the worst conditions imaginable...salt and sand pick-up work, in particular!”

Mr. DeGrace produced two quotes from firms which can fix it. “I also have quotes for prices on new ones...I don’t know the direction the board wants to go!”

The mayor asked him the cost of repairing the 21 year old machine.

“To repair everything that needs to be repaired on it- and it needs a whole new hopper- we’re looking at about $65,000!” Mr. DeGrace told them.

“It’s hydrostatic with a hydraulic pump that runs everything on the machine. We already replaced that once about five years ago. Back then that hydraulic motor costs the village about $15,000.”

He said because of the machine’s age even back then, the drive device had to be built from scratch.

Mr. DeGrace estimated if the hydraulic devices goes again “you are probably looking at spending double the $15,000!”

The superintendent of the DPW produced two prices for a new street one. A company called Guthry’s offered a Delco sweeper for about $284,000. “That’s the lowest offer!”

He said he also received a quote from another company which offered a machine for $372,000- about $100,000 more.

“I like the first one,” Mayor Fontana joked.

Mr. DeGrace said there are other manufacturers out there which he could also contact to get more prices.

“I just got these as a starting point in our discussions,” he told the board.

It was noted the town has its own street sweeper, that was purchased used some time ago.

Mr. DeGrace lamented that it’s sad the village is looking to spend that much money to buy another machine, which only has a single purpose, that is: to sweep streets.

“But it’s still vital to our operation,” was the mayor’s answer to that, and Mr. DeGrace agreed.

“We’ve been kicking this can down the road and now the can is falling apart,” the mayor admitted.

Trustee David “Haji” Maroun wondered about looking to buy a good, used sweeper. Someone else wondered about acquiring a demo model from some dealer.

“You can do whatever you want, but that’s one piece of machinery I wouldn’t advise buying used,” Mr. DeGrace told them. “-Because it takes such a beating!”

“It picks up sand at high speeds so everything in or on it is getting sandblasted!”

“All these companies are offering to provide a machine on a municipal lease- so we could pay for it over six or seven years,” the DPW chief told them all.

“So it’s not like we have to come up with the amount to buy it all at once!”

“Is it a lease with an option to buy?” Trustee Eric Shaheen asked him.

The special arrangement with municipalities allow them to make lease payments over the course of the lease period and then buy the machine for $1 at the lease end, Mr. DeGrace told him.

This type of lease, according to Village Clerk and Treasurer Mary Casagrain would require the village to pay the first payment at the start of the lease. In typical bond financing the village commonly uses, the first payment isn’t due until the end of the first year, he explained.

Mr. DeGrace said the village can also use a portion of its annual CHIP (state Consolidate Highway Improvement Program funds) money to make the payments.

Mrs. Casagrain estimated the village still has about $21,000 in CHIP funds it will roll over into the new year.

“It’s something we have to do soon’- either repair our old one or order a new one,” Mr. DeGrace told the board. If it goes the repair route, the parts needs to be ordered soon so they arrive in time to get the machine fixed before it’s needed in April.

Trustee Maroun wondered if a new one would be in stock at a dealer some where or would it have to be manufactured.

Mr. DeGrace thought a dealer might have one or two in stock.

Mrs. Casagrain remembered the existing 2003 sweeper was purchased brand new by the village then.

“I remember when the village bought this at the time there was a view that it should be replaced every five or six years, so it wouldn’t get to this deteriorated state,” Mr. DeGrace also reminded the board.

Asked about the annual amount the village would look at spending on a new sweeper, Mrs. Casagrain figured about $25,000 per year.

Mr. DeGrace said the annual lease payment on the more expensive machine would be about $69,000 per year for the next six years.

“Maybe the board wants to look at leasing or renting a sweeper each summer?” the DPW chief suggested. “I don’t know how that would work out for us?”

He said his department uses the machine two days a week all summer.

He also said he doesn’t know what the village’s obligation would be to properly maintain any leased or rented machine.

“So we need to make a decision within the next two months,” Mayor Fontana told her board.

“How quickly can you get the main part you need?” was Trustee Eric Shaheen’s question to him. Mr. DeGrace said the repair firms he spoke with couldn’t estimate a time period, because they had to built it. “It’s not like they have one sitting in their yard!”

“We knew this was coming...it isn’t a shock to our system,” the mayor told Mr. DeGrace, who admitted he hated to bring the expensive issue to the board.

Trustee Shaheen wondered how much money the village has spent maintaining and repairing the 2003 sweeper over the years. “I’m talking on things mechanical!”

Mr. DeGrace said the hydraulic motor was replaced five years ago at a cost of $15,000. The elevators on the machine have been replaced many times.

Mrs. Casagrain said the village budgets $5,000 each year for brooms for it.

Trustee Shaheen said given the sweeper’s 21 year age, he was leaning to replacing it, rather than fixing it. He noted parts for it will be obsolete very soon, if not already.

“When I call the repair firms, and I tell them it’s a 2003 model, they kind of snicker,” Mr. DeGrace admitted.

Trustee Leon LeBlanc, who directs the DPW, told Mr. DeGrace he thinks the old 2003 Johnson sweeper should be replaced.

Mr. Shaheen said if the village can arrange a seven-year lease, it could start looking at replacing its sweeper at each lease end. “At this point I think it’s senseless to spend a whole bunch of money on that old machine!”

The steps ahead, according to the village clerk, are the village will have to contact its bond lawyer which will draft the bond document and then the village would have to go out to bid to find a bond buyer.

Mr. DeGrace said he would secure more price quotes for the board at its next meeting. There are a number of companies across the country that manufacturer sweepers.

He noted the more expensive priced machine was for a vacuum-style sweeper and the less expensive one was for a mechanical sweeper, like the one the village already has. “But I’m not crazy about a vacuum sweeper because if you get on a rough road, you can break the vacuum seal. He said he feels a mechanical sweeping style device is more durable. It pushes all the collected material into the middle and an elevators picks it up, he explained.

The vacuum sweeper is more designed for an airport where all the paved areas are level. “Level like our streets,” Mr. DeGrace joked.

“I think we should go with a mechanical type sweeper like we have,” he recommended.

He remembered when he first joined the DPW crew decades ago the village had a vacuum-style sweeper. “Once you were on any uneven surface, it blows the debris rather that sucking it up. It also commonly breaks the vacuum seal.”

“The mechanical type is $100,000 cheaper and they do work well!” he told the board members.

“We need to make a decision now, or we won’t have a sweeper by spring,” Trustee Shaheen cautioned. “We need to make a decision at our January meeting!”

If the village goes the lease/purchase route, negotiating a financing bond won’t be necessary, Mrs. Casagrain thought.