St. Robert gas workers say they need a new truck but don’t have enough money in their budget. During Tuesday evening’s meeting of the St. Robert Public Works Committee, Alderman Gene Newkirk, who chairs the committee, asked if it would be possible to get more money from City Administrator Norman Herren.
“Can you go over and squeeze Norm a little bit and see if he’s got a few dollars?” Newkirk asked Lyle Thomas, St. Robert’s director of public works.
Thomas said there’s a serious need.
“The gas department truck is going through transmissions like it’s out of style,” Thomas said. “The box that’s on the truck and the equipment that’s carried in the truck is far to heavy for the transmissions they put in there anymore, basically because they’re no longer built the way they used to be built.”
Utility Foreman Steve Long said a new Ford 550 truck would cost $67,320 and probably outlast two cab chassis; a used 2002 Ford F450 is available and would cost $53,000 for a vehicle with 122,000 miles, Long said.
Other options could include refitting some of the existing city trucks with a different chassis and using them as a gas department truck, he said.
Newkirk said it doesn’t make sense to buy a used vehicle with 122,000 miles for only about $14,000 less than a new truck.
“We’ve bought used so many times and got burned on it over the years,” Newkirk said. “I’m sick of used; I want to with a warranty, and new.”
Thomas said any money needed to replace the gas truck will have to come out of a budget other than the city’s natural gas service.
“Honestly, there’s not $20,000 in the gas department to squeeze out,” Thomas said, pledging to speak with Herren to see if another budget line item could be adjusted.
“They’ve got to have a truck,” Newkirk said.
Alderman asked what gas workers are doing now.
“The way they are running now is they are running one of the old street department trucks and taking out everything out of the truck so it’s not heavy in case something happens, and then they have to make quite a few trips,” Long said.
Aldermen agreed that doesn’t make sense and said the gas workers, like other utility workers, should be able to have a truck with everything on it that they need to do a job rather than wasting labor time and diesel fuel by travel time.