County approves $43K road equipment

Allyson Dix

Jobe Publishing, Inc.

 

Barren County Fiscal Court held a special-called meeting last Friday and unanimously approved various road department equipment expenses in the absence of Magistrates Trent Riddle and Carl Dickerson.

A paver, a vehicle used to lay asphalt, owned by the county is in need of repairs and the court approved a bid of $26,879.68 from Brandeis Machinery to repair it. Currently, the county owes Brandeis Machinery $1,189.56 for servicing the same paver.

Judge/Executive Micheal Hale replied to Magistrate Tim Coomer’s inquiry regarding what the amount would actually be used for on the equipment. Hale said this repair is specifically for anything related to the undercarriage area, which includes sprockets, pads, rollers, segments, and track adjusters.

Coomer was hesitant that more repairs on this monetary scale could be needed every year.

Magistrate Mark Bowman pointed out that new pavers now cost around $160,000 and the county gave $15,000 for the paver with approximately a year of service up to this point. Bowman also said monies from selling older equipment paid for the paver when it was purchased.

Hale implied the county was already saving money since the road department is paving the roads as opposed to the higher costs the county would see if hiring an outside company.

Bowman said it costs the county $11,000 per mile to pave versus paying Scotty’s Contracting $71,000 per mile.

“If you look at the mileage that we’ve done…one mile would pay for this,” Bowman said.

Susan Gibson, Transportation Supervisor, told the Transportation Committee in their meeting an hour before the court meeting that this estimate could potentially end up being less, because it includes several items that the paver may not need, but in case they are needed once repairs begin, they are already included in the estimate.

Magistrates also approved $6,647.35 from Diamond Equipment for repairs to a grader and $10,254.40 for two snowplows to attach to the new pickup trucks. It is unclear what company the county approved the bids from on the plows.

The court did not include a vote for the installation of the plows ($600 each) citing the current road department employees could most likely accomplish the task. If it is later decided to pay for the installations, the Judge/Executive would be able to approve a purchase order for it without needing a court approval due to the amount being less than $3,000.