Cass City to wait two years for new salt truck

CASS CITY — The village of Cass City planned to buy two new trucks this year.

Instead, one will have to be enough.

At its April 29 session, the village council approved the purchase of a new salt truck through the state purchasing plan, MI-Deal. The village still will wind up paying $95,556.01 for the International HV607 chassis from Tri County International Trucks of Jackson.

And the village will wait two years for the truck to be delivered.

"It is crazy and we were quite surprised," village manager Deb Powell said. "Our capital improvement budget had amounts for the purchase, but we were looking at a salt truck and a pickup truck. … But when we saw that, we're, like, there's no pickup truck coming."

The diesel-engine salt truck is a little less costly than a gas-engine version and is deemed to be more dependable. The gasoline-engine model would have arrived a little earlier, but it isn't as good of a truck, Powell said, and it was more costly.

"After we found out the cost of the gasoline engine," Powell said, "we went, 'Well, step back. Let's look at other options.' This diesel truck is a better truck for less price, but we're going to have to order it."

That, however, is only half the story, and only about half the price. For the truck to be used to spread salt in the winter, another $81,500 in equipment needed to be purchased from Shults Equipment of Ithaca. The equipment includes a dump box with a tarp, a salt spreader, an underbody scraper, a hydraulic system and hazard light system.

Shults outfits trucks bought through the state purchasing plan.

"We did our due diligence," Powell said, "but we were pretty surprised by the cost."

She said the current salt truck has passed a checkup by the Department of Public Works' own mechanic.

"We feel our existing, old dump truck-salt truck," Powell said, "will make it so we can wait for the new one."

Though it is the village's dedicated salt truck, Powell said, it and the other trucks in the DPW's fleet get used all year.

"The dump trucks are our workhorses," she said. "That's why we put it in our capital budget. They are used year-round, every week."

Until the new truck is delivered, the old model will remain in use.

"We need this new salt truck," Powell said, "but we'll get by. We didn't anticipate it was going to take this long but that was the decision we made when we went with this unit."

The council also:

• Awarded the contract for Cass City's new logo, marketing and branding program to New Moon Visions of Plymouth. Two other firms – Guello Marketing of Cass City and Destination by Design of Boone, North Carolina – also bid for the contract. New Moon Visions has offices in Michigan and California. The firm offered a seven-month timeline to complete the work. The village budgeted $7,500 for the work, with the rest of the up-to-$30,000 cost coming from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Redevelopment Ready Community Toolbox to help fund the work.

• Will pay Dean Alexander Concrete of Cass City $40,530.60 for 979 feet of sidewalk repairs throughout the village. Three other firms – Creative Concrete of Cass City ($42,230), Osantoski Builders of Bad Axe ($41,500) and CLS Management of Cass City ($42,856) – also offered bids.

• Named village president Robert Piaskowski as the chairman of the village's Memorial Day parade.

• Approved the Police Officers Labor Council contract. The union already had

approved the contract. The two-year contract is retroactive to Jan. 1. This covers the three full-time patrol officers. It is the first contract with the POLC. The officers filed to join the union last year.

• Renewed the village's insurance package -- life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and short-term disability insurance – for 19 employees with Sun Life Assurance at a cost of $28,721.

• Will pay B&B Pool Service of Livonia $9,725 for pool chemicals for the Helen Stevens Memorial Pool.

• Will pay Kiefer Aquatics/The Lifeguard Store of Bloomington, Illinois, $6,749 for a pool vacuum. A $3,375 grant from the William and Ruth Janks Fund will cover part of the cost.

• Voted to allow the Gaeth family and the Drew Wessels family to raise livestock inside the village. The Wessels family wants to raise chickens while the Gaeth family is raising chickens and goats.