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District of Elkford to buy new truck for $352K

The purchase is meant to shore up an aging fleet
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The District of Elkford office. File Photo. (Joshua Fischlin/The Free Press)

The District of Elkford is buying a new hooklift plow and sand truck for $325,508 plus taxes.

At a May 9 meeting, councillors voted in favour of the purchase of a 2022 Single Axle 5-Tonne Hooklift Plow and Sand Truck from Freightliner of Cranbrook Ltd. in partnership with Falcon Equipment, and voted to amend the 2022-2026 five-year financial plan to account for the cost.

Jesse Huisman, director of engineering and public works, said the purchase is a replacement for an aging fleet.

“We’re buying it through the use of our fleet reserve, which is something staff and council put together and allocated appropriate funds into a few years ago to make these purchases possible.”

The amendment to the financial plan was to increase their budget for 2022.01 from $320,000 to $355,000.

“The increase was due to just price increases we’ve seen with the way things are in the world right now,” Huisman said.

“We hoped it would come in cheaper, but of course, it’s something we still need.”

The new truck is meant to plow and sand streets, but will have uses beyond the winter months as well.

“The hooklift part of it makes it so that the truck is useful in all seasons.”

For example, the sander is able to be removed and replaced with another piece of equipment in a short period of time.

Huisman said that makes “the truck more versatile, where your traditional sand truck would park for six months of the year.”

According to the report to council prepared by Huisman, the truck is “already in queue for the assembly line, significantly reducing the wait time for delivery.”

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josh.fischlin@thefreepress.ca

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