County Road and Solid Waste Manager TJ Fairley shared this week that the road department currently has two trucks down.
Fairley said the trucks wouldn’t start Monday morning.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald told the board of supervisors that Monday was the time for action.
“We’ve always made the road department last when it comes to the trucks,” Donald said.
Fairley’s job responsibilities, which have included solid waste for the past few months, are more reason to get him a set of reliable wheels, Donald said.
“With TJ running back and forth over the county every day and then running behind solid waste stuff,” Donald said, “We need to get him a truck.”
Donald weighed the pros and cons of buying a truck under a state contract and buying one without it. The board is required to advertise for bids when purchasing trucks.
“If you buy not on state contract,” Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams said, “It doesn’t matter if you buy new or used. You have to advertise.”
McWilliams said this process would take about a month.
“Now you may be able to drive by a car lot and see a truck out there, and you go through the advertising, but you are not going to get the state contract price,” Donald said.
Donald assessed the figures of both options and said purchasing under a state contract would save them $15,000 to $20,000.
“You can get a new one,” Donald said. “You just can’t get it at the contract price.”
Fairley said he needed seven trucks total when asked by the board.
“I have three in Indianola that ain’t worth spending no more money on,” Fairley said. “Two in Blaine and two in Drew.”
Fairley suggested getting the sheriff’s department’s old trucks instead of purchasing seven new trucks.
“We got three from them already, and they seem to be in pretty good shape,” Fairley said.
Donald came up with a plan that involved seven new F150 E1s, priced at around $27,000 through a state contract.
“E1 is a regular work truck,” Donald said. “What he wants is a regular work truck. He’s going to be in and out of the mud.”
Donald said the road department could use the sheriff’s department’s old trucks in June once they receive their new trucks.
“We can set this money aside out of ARPA money to buy those other trucks,” Donald said.
“When the sheriff gets his new trucks, he can just turn his trucks over to TJ to use until his new trucks come in that we are going to get on state contract.”
According to Donald, the county will receive five trucks for the sheriff’s department in June, and they were going to order four additional trucks for the sheriff’s department out of ARPA funds.
Donald said they could sell the sheriff’s department’s old F150s after the road department’s new trucks come in. Donald was confident in the resale value of the F150s.
“There is higher demand in them now,” Donald said.
