Feb 5, 2021 2 min read

Washington City Council agreed during a Thursday virtual meeting to purchase a new plow truck after one of four recently broke.

According to Councilman Ken Westcott, director of public works, one of the plow drivers noticed an older truck was not running properly. When they took it in for service, a crack in the frame was discovered.

“It’s a 2002, so it’s 20 years old,” Westcott said.

Council first had to approve adding the action item to Thursday’s agenda. Councilman Matthew Staniszewski cast the only vote against the addition.

“No,” he said. “We’re spending $144,000 without public input.”

Councilman Joe Manning countered, “It’s a public service, and we need to keep it on the road.”

Although he voted against adding the action item to the agenda, Staniszewsi voted in favor of purchasing a new truck.

The motion to purchase the truck for about $144,000 was approved contingent upon the old one not being salvageable. Westcott and Councilman Joseph Pintola suspect that it won’t be, due to its age.

“I’m just trying to be proactive,” Westcott said. “Now we’re down to three trucks … Winter’s not over yet.”

The funding will come from Act 13 money and the city’s capital improvement fund, Manning and Westcott said. The purchase won’t need to be bid out, Westcott said, because it will be purchased through COSTARS, the state’s cooperative purchasing program.

Westcott said if they were to have one built, it would take up to six months. They opted to pay “a little bit more” for one already available from Stephenson Equipment, in McDonald.

“We don’t have six months,” Westcott said.

The truck they plan to purchase is a little bigger and “heavier duty” than the plow trucks they have now, Westcott said. It likely won’t go into service until next week.

“We haven’t got a new truck in the 10 years I’ve been in public works,” he said “The plow trucks are old. We need to start investing in new equipment.”