Big Equipment Purchase For St. Joe

saintjosephcityhall-30
saintjosephcityhall-30

The city of St. Joseph’s Public Works Department is moving ahead on replacing its largest vehicle, the jet/vac sewer cleaner truck. Public Works director Tom MacDonald told the city commission Monday it’s the most important vehicle they use, and it’s used a lot.

“The truck is out virtually every day,” said MacDonald. “It is used in addition to relieving sewer backups, it also is used for routine cleaning of the sanitary sewers and storm sewers.”

The new truck will cost a little under $410,000, of which the budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year has $180,000 set aside for the purchase. MacDonald says the rest of the price will be financed over three years, and he will be back before the city commission at a later date to get final approval of that expenditure. He says replacing what they currently have needs to be done.

“One of the things that moves this up on our priority list for replacements is the fact that the machine we have right now is a single-axle machine, so we constantly have concerns about meeting the weight restrictions as we fill the debris box.” MacDonald says the new vehicle will be double-axle, which will eliminate that concern.