The City of Plymouth will be getting some new vehicles, following action by the board of works Monday. Board members approved the purchase of two police utility vehicles and a truck for the street department from Oliver Ford.
Oliver Ford submitted the lone quote for the police department vehicles for just under $28,000 apiece. However, the trade-in of the department’s 2010 Dodge Charger will bring the city’s total cost just under $49,000.
At the same time, the city got three quotes for the street department’s truck, and Oliver Ford’s was actually the highest, according to Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt. “After reviewing them, the one in Warsaw, which was the low bid, it actually missed automatic transmission, missed the spare tire and wheel. That kind of knocked them out,” he explained. “Then the next one was Country Auto, and after doing a bunch of research, because no one really could give me an answer until I was just about completely done with all this, their transmission of the power takeoff does not work in our application of spreading material at a slow speed.” That left Oliver Ford’s quote of $41,399.
Meanwhile, the board of works also approved the purchase of a used forklift for the water department. “We’ve searched for quite a while, and forklifts are kind of a unique item,” said Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson. “They seem to come and they move very quickly for whatever reason. It’s very difficult to use an apples-to-apples comparison, especially on a used unit.” The city will purchase the forklift from Morrison Industrial Equipment for $14,800.
The Plymouth Board of Works also passed a resolution Monday that will pave the way for the purchase of an end loader. City Attorney Sean Surrisi says state statute lets the city make a purchase under a prior written contract. “It just allows any government entity to piggyback on another government entity’s contract for purchase of equipment or goods, as long as that contract was obtained following the proper procedures,” he explained. “So last year, the street department had a bid process for selecting an end loader.”
He says the successful bidder at the time was West Side Tractor Sales for a price of $163,000, and the company is still willing to honor that price.
