Winamac Town Manager Brad Zellers came before council members Monday night with a new option for replacing a truck for the water department.
As a reminder, council members initially considered two quotes for the replacement truck back in May. The Braun dealership offered a price of $28,405.96 and Jim Dobson Ford submitted a quote of about $30,272.
Zellers reminded the council that they approved the purchase of a Dodge pick-up truck from the Braun dealership at that time. However, despite ordering it several months ago, Zellers said the specific vehicle they ordered, a three-quarter ton straight truck, will not be in production until the end of January at the earliest.
Town Council President Tom Murray asked if they had to get a three-quarter ton truck. Zellers said that it’s necessary to do so because they have to be able to attach the plow to the vehicle.
Zellers added that the current vehicle breaks down frequently and needs to be replaced as soon as possible since they’ve already had to sink additional money into it while they waited on the first truck that was approved.
Water Department Superintendent Jeremy Beckner checked around to see if the same model could be found elsewhere. Zellers said Beckner was unable to find the same kind of truck but he was able to locate a viable option that would work instead.
Zellers explained, “What he could get would be the cab and half, which is the one that has a little smaller cab. There are several places where they could get one of those instead of that.”
Council President Murray asked, “Do we know how soon they could get that?”
Zellers replied, “Within a week, probably.”
Zellers noted that while this new option may be a bit more costly than the quote that as approved in May, it’s still less than the highest quote that was submitted at that time.
Zellers added that nothing has been officially selected but asked the council’s permission to let Superintendent Beckner purchase a different truck once he finds the best fit. Council members voted unanimously to allow the new purchase.
