Equipment Purchases Debated at Clearfield Borough Council Meeting

CLEARFIELD – Clearfield Borough debated the purchase of vehicles and equipment at the Thursday night committee meeting.  The possible purchases are a Ford F150 Crew Cab, a 2012 Dodge 5500 Dump Truck with equipment and a JCB 4cx14 backhoe/loader.  They will be voted on at the next meeting, and are all currently accounted for in the 2012 budget figures.

All three machines will be replacing existing equipment.  The F150 would be for the police department.  According to the Borough Manager Leslie Stott, the Clearfield Borough Police Department would sell cruiser #2.  She added that this was the vehicle that has been giving the police department the most trouble.  A cage would be installed so the truck could be used to carry prisoners.  A truck is requested so that loose dogs could be taken in and for a vehicle capable of transporting heavy items.  It would also be used for patrolling.

The street department has requested the dump truck and backhoe.  The current dump truck would be sold.  Head of the Street Department, Steve Biancuzzo, asked to keep the existing backhoe for at least a year.  Biancuzzo stated that if he could have only one of the two it would be the backhoe.  The current one is used daily, but is already failing on occasion.  He’d like to keep both so during winter one could be hooked up to a plow and the second one the salt spreader.

The dump truck would cost $73,711 and the backhoe would come to $92,320.  There was no available figure for the F150 at the time of the meeting.  The Dodge dump truck would include additional equipment including a plot, spreader, aluminum bed.

Council member James Kling questioned the F150 and whether an SUV would be better.  Borough member Fred Wisor questioned the expenses of all three items.  The dump truck would be under warranty for 60,000 miles, but some aspects of the truck would require being taken to Blairsville for service.

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