CROTHERSVILLE
Crothersville’s sewer and water departments are getting some upgrades.
The Crothersville Town Council recently approved spending requests submitted by Sewer Superintendent Mason Boicourt.
The first one was for work at the sewer and water plants.
That includes replacing gutters that are falling off, soffit and fascia that are decaying and the roof and decking on the main sewer building and small control building next to it. There also are doors and a window that need replaced.
RMW Construction of Seymour quoted $4,850 for the roof work, $3,280 for the soffit and fascia work, $450 for the window, $710 for the new gutters and $6,350 for the doors for a total of $15,640.
Boicourt said there also are some doors that need attention at the water plant.
Council President Danieta Foster made a motion to approve hiring RMW to do the work at both plants for up to $16,000, and that was unanimously approved. She said the money would come out of the town property building fund.
The other spending request was for a new truck for the town’s four utility workers to use.
The town currently has three trucks, but Boicourt said there are times when the four guys need to do different tasks, and one has to wait for another to return with a truck for them to use.
Plus, at the beginning of 2021, some of their job descriptions and responsibilities will be changing, so it would be beneficial to have a truck for each to use, he said.
He obtained quotes on two trucks from Heritage Ford of Corydon and two trucks from Coyle Chevrolet of Clarksville. They are a mix of regular cab trucks and utility trucks, the latter which could be used to haul parts and tools for water and sewer line repairs. All of them are all-wheel drive.
“Sometimes, we will run back to the shop just for a small piece, where we could possibly have all of these small pieces in this utility truck available to us whenever we’re out on a water leak to avoid maybe shutting the whole town down,” Boicourt said.
He also received quotes to add a snowplow package for the trucks, which costs $5,600 from Heritage Ford and $6,281.77 from Coyle Chevrolet, and said he added in $300 to change the seats from cloth to vinyl.
Three of the trucks have a regular cab, while a Chevrolet model has an extended cab with four doors.
Councilman Jamy Greathouse reached out to Coyle Chevrolet and asked about a municipal lease on the four-door truck. Since the cost of the extended cab was only $2,000 more than a single cab, he thought it made more sense to go with the four-door truck.
Greathouse said the cost of the 2019 Chevrolet would be $36,458 with a quarterly lease payment of $2,539.12 with the option to purchase the truck for $1 at the end of the four-year lease. With the snowplow, the cost would be $44,924 with a quarterly payment of $3,128.74.
“The reason I like this is yes, there are going to be some finance fees that go along with it, you’re going to pay a little more over the four years, but it’s not a lump sum at one time that we’re trying to recoup,” Greathouse said.
“And it will put us in a situation where we start to have a budgeted fleet system, where at the end of four years, we purchase the oldest one, we trade in, we start over a new lease and we start that cycle over so that we’re always being able to buy,” he said.
Boicourt said vinyl lettering and LED light bars would be added to the new truck, but he’s not sure of the costs. The council agreed to do the lettering but wait to do the light bars.
Greathouse made a motion to lease the four-door Chevrolet utility cab from Coyle Chevrolet, and that was unanimously approved. Foster said that will come out of the water and sewer funds.