The Plymouth Board of Works and Safety talked vehicles on Monday opening bids for trucks for the Water and Wastewater Departments and deciding to re-bid police vehicles.
Police Chief John Weir had opened bids from Oliver Ford of Plymouth for hybrid Explorers at a per-vehicle cost of $46,822. An alternate item in the bid was for “ballistic” or bulletproof front doors on the vehicles at a cost of $2,980 per vehicle. Kelly Chevrolet bid Tahoes at a cost of $52,160 each and did not offer a bid on the alternate.
Weir came before the board to recommend the purchase of three Tahoes and three hybrid Explorers with the extra cost for the ballistic doors. Some confusion arose regarding the specifications of the bid from Oliver, since Weir was informed that Ford did not have purely gas-powered vehicles available for police specifications.
Steve Kaiser of Oliver Ford was in attendance at the meeting to inform the board that Ford would have gas-powered interceptors available and that he could offer them for a cost of $2000 less than the hybrid version.
Several members of the Council felt that the reduced cost would be in the interest of taxpayers, and since the original bids had been taken under advisement, the vehicles would have to be re-bid. They asked Weir to seek bids for the vehicles again with the new specifications.
Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson opened bids for replacement trucks for the Water Department and Wastewater Department.
Oliver quoted on a 3/4 ton truck for $48,700 and bid two trucks for the Wastewater Department for $52,310 per truck. The bid included a trade-in value for 1996, 2004, and 2006 trucks.
The Auto Park bid was $40,125 for all three trucks, with a trade-in value of the same three trucks.
Those bids were taken under advisement.
City Engineer Dan Sellers came before the Board to recommend the bid for city street projects for the coming year be awarded to E&B Paving for a total of $1,198,224.
